


Blade Runner Blues

by Rogue21



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Adventure, Allusion to Blind Betrayal, Blade Runner - Freeform, Blind Betrayal spoilers, Brotherhood of Steel - Freeform, M/M, Minutemen, Synths, The Institute - Freeform, The Railroad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-05-12 14:11:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 22,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5668864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue21/pseuds/Rogue21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paladin Danse is known as a Blade Runner, it’s his job to retrieve technology for the Brotherhood of Steel as well as locate synths and destroy them and bring back parts of them for examination to the Proctors. Riley Theodore Scott is just a lone wanderer travelling the Commonwealth with his best friend MacCready, a runaway gunner who’s desperate to leave that life behind after Quincey. Their paths cross when Riley saves Danse's life and is recruited into the Brotherhood to help locate a holotape of Synth information. Riley is dragged into an Institute conspiracy that could rip the Brotherhood apart when they’re so close finding out who Father is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Engage the Energy

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Blade Runner, Danse is still a Paladin but the Brotherhood also hunt down Synths.

Danse kicked open the door to see the Gen-1 Synth leader ready with the gun.

“Anomaly detected,” it said firing at him. Danse ran at the Synth and wacked the gun out of its hands before hitting it in the head with the shock baton he had obtained. “Error, error,” the Synth automatically said as it sparked electricity and fell to the ground. He grabbed his knife and cut open the sheet metal that covered the Synths body and pulled out the switchboard and turned on his radio.

“Elder, I have retrieved the switchboard transmitter, requesting a Vertibird,” he said.

“Nice work Runner, deploying Vertibird,” replied Elder Maxson, his boss and leader of the Commonwealth faction of the Brotherhood of Steel. Danse left the basement of the radio tower which was littered with the broken corpses of Synths he had destroyed getting to the leader. He put the switchboard into the pocket of his battle coat and saw a Vertibird heading in his direction. He turned off the shock baton and place it in his satchel and switched on the radio strapped to his shoulder.

“Scribe Haylen are you there?” he asked.

“This is Scribe Haylen, Vertibird descent in approximately one minute, over and out,” Haylen replied on the radio.

“Copy that Scribe,” Danse said as the Vertibird began to make its descent.

Danse boarded the Vertibird which began to make its way back to the Prydwen. Danse took out the bottle of Nuka Cola from his satchel and began to drink it as he looked over the Commonwealth in the red sky.

“Paladin sir, how many Synths were there?” Haylen asked him as she flew the Vertibird.

“At least thirty, nothing I couldn’t handle, I did find a Live and Love issue in there while I was making my way to the basement, and some documents for Quinlan, hopefully these will keep him occupied for the time being before he bugs me again about finding more,” Danse replied taking another sip of his Nuka Cola.

“They probably will, how complicated did they look?” Haylen asked.

“I one of them was written in a dead language,” Danse told her.

“That should keep him occupied for six weeks then,” Haylen commented as she turned the Vertibird slightly. Danse could see them getting closer to the Prydwen, he knew Maxson would impressed that he took down thirty Synths single-handedly but he was still going to push him to take the bounty hunter cases. The cases that involved looking for Gen-3 Synths, the Brotherhood were quick and resourceful to find locations of Synths and place bounties on them before the Coursers could do anything, but most of the cases were taken by Knights who didn’t have major responsibility and were only in it for the caps. Danse’s role was different, yes he was a high ranking Paladin but he was one of the Brotherhood’s best Blade Runners, he was quick to find locations of rare technology and salvage them, and he was fast when destroying Institute Synths but he rarely went for the Gen-3 cases, he preferred the Gen-1 and 2 cases as they were easier to spot and they didn’t require the SAFE test.

When he returned to the Prydwen, Elder Maxson greeted him with that perpetual glare etched into his face, Danse couldn’t remember the last time he saw Elder Maxson smile.

“Good work Paladin, return the switchboard to Proctor Ingram for analysis and then you’re off duty for the night,” he ordered Danse.

“Understood Elder,” Danse replied giving him the Brotherhood salute and heading towards the main deck.

Inside the main deck of the Prydwen Danse returned the switchboard to Proctor Ingram and the documents to Quinlan.

“What is this language?” he asked Danse looking at one of them.

“Not sure, must be one of the pre-war languages, good luck translating it,” he replied to Quinlan before leaving to go to his private quarters.

Inside his private quarters, Danse threw his battle coat and satchel over the chair and pulled off his shirt. He opened the satchel and took out the Live and Love issue he’d found and lay down on his bed to start reading it.

“Beware the Man Handler, doesn’t sound very threatening,” he commented as he read through the magazine. Soon Danse drifted off to sleep, dropping the magazine onto the floor.

_Bright lights flashed in his eyes as a distant voice started talking._

_“Look at him, he’s perfect, the best one we’ve created yet,” the voice said. Lights flashed again and he was in a hospital gown running down a corridor towards a door with the word EXIT above it, people were chasing him and that same voice was shouting orders._

_“Seal the exits, M7-97 is loose in the lab, don’t let him get away!” the lights flashed again and he was lying in the dirt being yelled at by someone._

_“They’re after you, we have to get out of here now the meeting place has been compromised, where the hell is High Rise!”_

Danse awoke suddenly, his lungs struggling to take in the air, he felt like some had been trying to drown him. That dream had been strange, frightening, who was High Rise, who was hunting him, who was M7-97? He sighed and stood up to get changed, Elder Maxson would no doubt have a new mission for him to do, never a dull day for Danse. He left his quarters and went the command deck where Elder Maxson was addressing some new initiates.

“Ad Victorium soldiers, do us proud,” he said saluting them. Danse walked over to Maxson who saluted him.

“Paladin Danse, a little early for you isn’t it, I have a new mission for you,” Maxson said to Danse.

“What’s the case?” he asked.

“One those scientists who work for the Railroad, Doctor Carrington, left a prototype of a new kind of Stealth Boy underneath a Slocum Joe’s in Lexington, I want you to retrieve it and bring it back and be on the lookout for any synths, the Institute seems to be dispatching more by the day, good luck and Ad Victorium,” Maxson explained to Danse.

“Ad Victorium Elder,” Danse replied saluting. The strange dream lingered in the back of his mind, somehow that voice he heard telling him to go seemed familiar but he couldn’t recall where he’d heard it.


	2. Talking With A Laser Beam

Just outside of Lexington, Riley Scott, and MacCready were walking towards the town as it rained heavily. Riley checked his map on the Pip Boy to get their location.

“Okay we’re just outside Lexington, let’s bunker down in that Red Rocket station for the night, if we’re lucky we’ll make it to Diamond City by lunch tomorrow,” he told MacCready as they headed towards the Red Rocket near the Slocum Joe’s.

“We’ve been walking for hours I could do with a lie down,” MacCready replied as he took off his cap. Preston had suggested they take over Hangman’s Alley which meant travelling back into the Boston area down from Sanctuary. They headed into the Red Rocket station and Riley closed the shutters and MacCready set out mines around the station door.

“If anything gets near us, we’ll hear it,” MacCready said as he locked the door.

“Alright you can take a break, I’m going to cook us dinner, what do you want with your meat, Sugar Bombs or Potato Chips?” Riley asked prepping the small cooking area that was already in the station.

“Sugar Bomb me,” MacCready said sitting down on the hard floor and stretching his legs. “I am in so much pain, I should not have joint pains at my age.” Riley threw him the box of Sugar Bombs which he caught with one hand.

“Oh don’t fret, tomorrow evening we’ll be drinking Moonshine in the Dugout in after clearing out Hangman’s Alley and then we’ll be drunk and spooning in the room we always rent from Yefim,” Riley said as he cooked the mongrel meat.

The evening was settling in as MacCready and Riley sat by a lit lantern eating dinner.

“Nobody wanted the title of Mayor be changed to Princess, so I punched her in the face, and then I was Mayor for the next three years,” MacCready explained.

“You became the Mayor of Lamplight by punching a ten year old girl?” Riley asked not believing it.

“To clarify I was also ten years old, I was Mayor for three years and left at sixteen, Lucy was fifteen when I left and I wouldn’t see her for like six months where I got a big surprise,” MacCready replied.

“She was pregnant?” Riley asked.

“Roughly seven and a half months, quite unexpected after not seeing someone for six months,” MacCready replied.

“When Nora told me she was pregnant, I knew exactly what caused it. There was this park nearby the house I’d bought and I took her out one evening to celebrate the end of the war, we drank, one thing led to another and the next thing we knew, we were on the picnic blanket behind some bushes, her skirt is hiked up around her thighs whilst I’m lying on my back just enjoying the activity we’ve got going, I think I enjoyed it too much because four weeks later she showed me the pink stick and I realised ‘oh shit I’m going to be a dad’ just as I had to go back to the army to train new recruits for a few months,” Riley told him.

“I think your story wins, I could never compete with that,” MacCready said. Riley laughed as he finished up the rest of his dinner.

“No you couldn’t, pre-war Riley has way too many crazy stories, I don’t think in this present you can get drunk, strip naked and pole dance with a street lamp…unless you know we’re in Goodneighbour, I’m sure Hancock wouldn’t mind,” he replied.

“No he wouldn’t, we should probably get some sleep, raiders aren’t going to kill themselves you know,” MacCready said. Riley agreed and started to roll out his bedroll. “I just hope we put enough mines down.”

“I’m sure we did Cread, don’t worry about it, if you get worried about ferals, I’ll spoon you for protection,” Riley said as he lay down.

“And that is why you’re my best friend Riley, you look out for me,” MacCready replied lying down on his bedroll and turning out the lantern. Riley turned onto his side and closed his eyes. Out of everyone he’d met during his travels in the Commonwealth MacCready was one of the few he’d grown close to, after their meeting in the Third Rail they had never left each other’s side, going to abandoned buildings and raider dens and even clearing out the Super Mutants that owned Trinity Tower. It was good to have someone watching his back in the Commonwealth. He slowly drifted off to sleep as the Lexington raiders quietened down for the night.

Outside of Lexington, Scribe Haylen dropped Danse off.

“Head back to the Prydwen, I’ll return on foot,” Danse told Haylen.

“Roger that Paladin, Ad Victorium,” Haylen replied before flying the Vertibird into the air leaving Danse. He pulled out his gun and began to walk towards Slocum Joe’s. The dream he had plagued his mind, it just seemed strange, but the voices kept shouting in his head, why was the voice telling him to run so familiar? He scoured the area and saw mines outside Red Rocket, it wasn’t his destination so he ignored it and looked at the Slocum Joe’s it was empty. Empty seemed too convenient for him, no there were Synths here somewhere.

Danse entered the shop and walked down stairs at the back of the shop leading to a basement, he saw a lift and smiled.

“Perfect, a lift,” he muttered walking over and pressing the button. He rubbed his eyes, he couldn’t be distracted he had to focus. As Maxson would say to the initiates, ‘focus on what needs to be obtained and use any means to get it.’ The lift doors opened and he stepped in, checked the ammunition on his laser rifle and waited to reach the bottom floor. The doors opened and he heard Synths.

“Is the prototype here leader?” one asked.

“We must keep checking, Father needs this and fast,” the leader said. Danse peeked around the corner and aimed at the Synth, he pulled the trigger and a single fuel cell blasted energy at the Synth and disintegrated it instantly. He smirked, all those hours practicing on mannequins was finally paying off.

“What was that?” the leader asked confused. Danse fired another shot blasting off its arm.

“Blade Runner!” it cried knowing what he was and tried to fire back at Danse. Danse moved forward towards the Synth and knocked the gun out of its hand grabbed it by the neck.

“How many are there?” he asked the Synth.

“Error, you are not Institute,” the Synth leader replied automatically.

“I don’t give a fuck what you think I am, are there more Synths,” he demanded as he started to crush its neck.

“There are six of us, myself and the one you terminated included,” the Synth replied Danse smiled at the Synth’s answer and ripped the head from its body. They might be dangerous and violent, but the frames that held the Gen-1 Synths together were pathetically weak.

He searched this strange underground defence bunker and came to a room filled with computer leading to a safe room. The door was still locked and those four other Synths were hiding somewhere. He walked over to the door which had a terminal next to it. He played the codes looking for the password and got the right one opening the door, inside was a dead man holding onto a 10mm pistol with a silencer attached to the front and on the shelf was the Prototype with a couple Stealth Boys.

“Carrington’s Prototype, excellent,” Danse breathed taking it and putting it in his satchel, he then grabbed the two Stealth Boys putting one away and holding onto the other.

The lift took him back up to the doughnut shop and he heard Synth movements. He prepared the Stealth Boy and walked up the stairs up into the shop, the remaining four Synths were waiting for him. Danse pressed the button and he turned invisible. Creeping past the Synths he successfully left the shop, accidentally knocking into a tipped over shopping trolley.

“Movement detected!” one Synth shouted as it began to fire rapidly. Danse dodged as the Synths ran out of the shop looking for him, one fired in his direction and he dodged, as the energy beam hit a mine by the red Rocket, setting them all off at once in a loud clumsy explosion.


	3. Detonator

The sounds of the mine explosions woke MacCready and Riley instantly.

“Let’s go,” Riley said grabbing his pistol, he opened the door to see four Synths firing at a something invisible. He began to fire at the Synth to damage them when one of the Synths hit the invisible target and the cloak disappeared as Riley saw Danse hit the ground injured.

“Blade Runner down,” the Synth said. Riley ran out of the station firing rapid bullets standing in front of Danse protecting him from the Synths weapons. MacCready stood a bit further back firing with his sniper rifle, successfully destroying one of the synths. Riley reloaded as the three Synths began to advance on him, he shot one in the head killing it instantly. The remaining two stopped suddenly and began to scan Riley.

“Assessing…Riley Theodore Scott…aged 25…accessing memory bank…movement authorised, removing status of threat,” the Synth said.

“Helpful,” Riley said before shooting both Synths with two bullets. The two Synths dropped to the floor, sparking as their units powered down and Riley knelt down to examine Danse. “Hello, are you alright?” he asked him.

“I…I…,” but Danse couldn’t speak, pain seared through his body as he tried to move.

“MacCready, help me get him into the station, he needs some Stimpacks right away,” Riley said helping Danse up. MacCready grabbed Danse’s other arm and they brought him into the station to patch him up.

Riley helped Danse lie down on the floor of Red Rocket as MacCready locked the door and turned the lantern back on. Riley took off Danse’s coat and grabbed a Stimpack.

“This might hurt a little okay,” he said lifting up Danse’s shirt to inject him with the Stimpack. Danse felt his strength return a little and he tried to sit up.

“Thank you…who…who are you?” Danse asked sitting up.

“I’m Riley, and this is MacCready. Those Synths must have set off our mines, thank God we were here, otherwise you’d be dead,” Riley replied checking Danse for any more injuries.

“Also, why did one of those tin cans call you Blade Runner, what is that?” MacCready asked him as he opened up a Purified Water for Danse.

“It’s a Brotherhood role, Blade Runners look for specific kinds of technology and we hunt Synths, I tend to stick to the first two generations of Synths, the third generations requires getting them to take the SAFE test and that takes too much time,” Danse replied.

“Brotherhood, you’re part of the Brotherhood of Steel?” Riley asked.

“Yeah, name’s Danse, I’m a Paladin in the ranks, I was sent to retrieve some kind of Stealth Boy prototype the Railroad has developed,” he told them.

“Ooh better not let those nut jobs know you took it, when they’re not liberating coffee makers they’re busy making things that go beep and explode,” Macready said. Riley giggled at MacCready’s comment.

“He has a point, you’re practically stealing from them how are you feeling?” he asked Danse.

“A little better, but I should get going, no one’s picking me up yet and the Prydwen is down south of Boston by the airport,” Danse replied.

“We’re heading into Boston anyway, you can come with us,” Riley suggested.

“That’s kind of you to offer but I don’t think that would be necessary,” Danse said to them.

“Please Danse, we’re all heading the same way and should any more of those creepy Synths come after you I’ll just use my strange authorisation power to stop them trying to attack us, and you need some rest,” Riley explained.

“Yeah what was that about, the Synth saw you and just stopped attacking like it knew you, that’s messed up,” MacCready said.

“I don’t know what happened there, but I’d rather not dwell on it, we should get some sleep,” Riley said.

“That would be wise,” Danse agreed. Riley and MacCready went back to lie on their bedrolls and Danse lay on the floor, he was grateful for Riley and MacCready showing up when they did otherwise those Synths would have killed him.

 

That next morning Riley and MacCready were set for the walk to Diamond City, Danse’s insistence to go back to the Boston Airport had swayed, he’d had the dream again, the bright lights of a hospital, the same voice telling him to run, only this time he could see a church in front of him.

“Is there a church in Boston?” Danse asked Riley who was checking his Pip Boy.

“There’s the Old North Church, but that place is infested with ferals, no one goes near it, and there’s Trinity Church, why?” MacCready answered. It couldn’t be the church from his dream, could it, he’d have to see the place to know.

“No reason, just curious,” Danse replied.

“Are you going to the airport then?” Riley asked him as he checked the ammunition on his pistol.

“No, I’m sure Elder Maxson won’t mind waiting a little longer for the prototype, I think I’ll come to Diamond City with you guys, if you don’t mind,” Danse replied.

“Not a problem Danse, MacCready what do you think?” Riley said looking at MacCready who was cleaning his rifle.

“It’s not the first time we’ve picked up a stray,” he commented. Riley looked at Danse with a smile.

“Welcome to the team then,” he said cheerfully. Danse smile back and turned on his radio to get in contact with Haylen.

“Danse is that you, Maxson wants to know if you got the prototype,” Haylen said on the radio.

“I got the prototype, but it’ll be a day or two before I return to the Prydwen, tell Elder Maxson I’ll be gone a little longer,” Danse replied.

“I don’t think Maxson will appreciate that explanation, he’s got a very important mission for you,” Haylen told him.

“Well then, say I’ll take a Gen-3 case, over and out,” Danse said turning off the radio. Elder Maxson would have to wait his turn.

 

The three of them began their walk to Diamond City, but Danse was wondering about the church and the voice he kept hearing. Riley and MacCready walked on ahead as Riley recalled a rather inappropriate story.

“So Garrett and I were alone in the store room and this is the first time we’d been alone in this situation and we’re trying so hard not to get caught but it’s kind of hard to do that when your boyfriend is a moaner,” Riley explained.

“Moaners are the worst, the constant ‘oh god’ gets tedious after a while,” MacCready commented. Danse caught up with them as Riley continued to tell the story.

“Finally I get him to finish but not without him screaming to the heavens, we get out of the closet, we’re messy and…well I hadn’t swallowed yet because I don’t tend to swallow, but then as we’re walking and I’m trying very hard to not spit everywhere, our commanding officer approaches and says ‘get to the mess hall, it’s creamed corn for dinner tonight’ and then…well let’s just say creamed corn got taken off the menu after that,” Riley said cringing at the memory. Danse laughed at the story which surprised MacCready as he’d been silent for the trip.

“What’s so funny?” he asked Danse.

“While that story was both funny and disgusting, a similar thing happened on the Prydwen only it was due to a really bad case of food poisoning and resulted in Elder Maxson saying that Cram was now banned from the ship,” he told them.

“I want to meet this Elder Maxson, he sounds so stuck up that I could probably have fun with that,” MacCready said. This gave Riley an idea.

“Idea, okay so it’ll be a few days before Danse returns to this Prydwen, why don’t we go with him?” he suggested.

“Only initiates are allowed on board but I’m sure Elder Maxson would make an exception for you two if I explained the incident with the Slocum Joe’s,” Danse replied.

“Excellent, now Diamond City awaits us,” Riley said pointing to the large city on the horizon. There was something about his enthusiasm that Danse admired in Riley, he seemed to treat the Commonwealth like an adventure and not the gritty death trap it was.


	4. Run The Company

The next two days went by quickly, they reached Diamond City to stock up on ammo and head out to Hangman’s Alley which Danse helped them seize from the raiders. The trip to Trinity Church was met with Super Mutants and a depressing empty nursery which caused Riley to fight back tears regarding Shaun. And the Old North Church was feral infested dead end. Finally Danse requested Haylen fly over to pick him, Riley and MacCready up to take them back to the Prydwen, Maxson was to be expecting him and Riley and MacCready were excited to be seeing the ship up close.

“Okay so this Elder Maxson, is he like some scary old guy who’s seen some shit?” Riley asked curiously.

“I think he’d take offense to being called old, he’s only twenty,” Danse replied as Haylen flew the Vertibird with them in over to the airport.

“Great now I feel old, and I’m only twenty five,” Riley said.

“I’d feel old too but I was a Mayor when I was ten years old, so I can’t complain,” MacCready said as he saw the ship getting closer.

“Yeah but you’re still younger than me,” Riley added on. A bullet then zipped past his face as they looked down to see a team of Super Mutants firing up at them. “Um Danse,” he said pointing to the mutants on top of a building firing up at them. Danse simply rolled his eyes and tossed out a grenade, Riley watched as the grenade flew through the air and hit the building blowing up the mutants.

“Mutants, nothing but trouble,” Danse commented looking out at the view.

The Vertibird soon arrived on the Prydwen and the three of them jumped out to be greeted by Captain Kells, who was less than happy to see Riley and MacCready.

“Paladin Danse when Elder Maxson requests your return, he expects your return,” Kells said to Danse.

“Understood Captain, but my route was delayed and if it wasn’t for these two I would be dead,” Danse said. Kells looked at MacCready and Riley who were standing side by side looking very confused.

“You two, this skinny looking sniper and…a vault dweller,” he said unimpressed with the two of them. Riley, offended by his remark, walked up to Kells and said in a serious tone:

“It’s Riley, Captain,” Captain Kells ignored him and turned back to Danse.

“You three wait in Elder Maxson’s office, I’ll inform him of your arrival,” Kells ordered and walked away into the main ship. Riley and MacCready followed Danse to Elder Maxson’s office which was on the main deck, it looked like a simple military office with a desk, computer and filing cabinets.

“I’m sure Elder Maxson would be interested in how you two saved me,” Danse told them as Riley went and sat in his chair.

“I…kea, this chair is comfortable, I think I’ll sit here and wait for him, MacCready, why don’t you sit on the table?” Riley suggested.

“Even better, how about I lie across it?” MacCready replied sitting on the desk and lying back. Danse leaned against the filing cabinet, he had to admit that MacCready and Riley had an interesting friendship, if it even was that and not some strange romantic entanglement.

“If I may and please tell me if it’s an inappropriate thing to ask but are you two…?” Danse trailed off lost on how to finish the question. Riley knew what he wanted to ask and laughed.

“No, we’re just insanely close friends, inappropriately close really, wouldn’t you say RJ,” Riley replied.

“Definitely, but I’m more into men of the rugged variety,” MacCready replied sitting up and saw someone open the door of the office. “And speaking of rugged,” he said as his eyes scanned over the man that had walked in.

“Paladin, I was just informed of…why is that man lying on my desk?” the man asked Danse glancing at MacCready who had gone back to lying on the desk like some pin-up.

“Elder Maxson, this is MacCready and Riley, they are the ones who saved my life at the Slocum Joe’s,” Danse said introducing them. Riley stood up and waved with a sheepish smile.

“We’re just so honoured to be in your presence, well one of us is,” he said walking towards Maxson to greet him. Maxson didn’t smile at them or shake their hand, instead he simply stared at Riley intensely for a moment. Then he turned to MacCready who was now sitting up and stared at him as well and then turned to Danse.

“Get the prototype to Proctor Ingram and then you’re off duty before your next assignment, as for you two…Danse will show you around, dismissed,” he said. Riley followed Danse out of the office but MacCready stayed for a brief moment and then got off the desk, he gave Maxson a suggestive smile and followed them out of the office.

 

The evening on the Prydwen was quiet, Ingram got to work examining the prototype and Quinlan began to look over the documents. Riley and MacCready got to know the ship and the crew a bit more before Danse showed them the food area.

“You didn’t mention that your boss was handsome,” MacCready said nonchalantly at dinner that evening. Riley paused mid-bite of his hound chops and saw the gleam in MacCready’s eyes, he’d seen that look before when Whitechapel Charlie put a rare pre-war rifle above the bar of the Third Rail and said no one could touch it, two days later MacCready had stolen it. Riley gave his friend a serious look hoping that he could telepathically tell him not to pursue Maxson. His telepathic warning was met with interruption from Proctor Quinlan.

“Paladin I looked over that document in that dead language and do you know what I discovered,” Quinlan said to him.

“Recipe for cheesecake!” MacCready guessed. Quinlan rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“No, not cheesecake, it’s all in Russian and we know Russia is snowy radioactive wasteland after the bombs fell, it’ll take some time for me to translate the entire document but if I’m correct, this could be a cold fusion theory paper,” Quinlan explained.

“Cold fusion, isn’t that nuclear energy or something?” Riley asked curiously, he was familiar with the theory but had no clue of the science behind it.

“In a manner of speaking, now I have to get back to translating it, Maxson wants a word with you Paladin,” Quinlan replied.

“Understood sir, if you two will excuse me,” Danse said standing up and leaving the food area. Riley looked at MacCready again who had the gleam in his eyes again.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking, I would really advise against it,” he told MacCready.

“You said the same thing about that rifle, and I still have it,” MacCready replied.

 

On the deck of the Prydwen, Danse went to meet with Elder Maxson. Maxson stood looking over the view of the Commonwealth waiting, he breathed in the air as Danse approached him.

“Elder Maxson, you asked to see me,” Danse said standing to attention.

“I have a new assignment for you, and I want you to take that…Riley with you, I think he could be useful for this mission,” Maxson said. Danse nodded as Maxson turned around to face the Paladin. “I have received word that there is a holotape containing information on every single Synth that has been freed by the Railroad, the problem is that it’s being protected by an agent by the name of Deacon, I need you and this Riley to infiltrate the Railroad, locate this holotape and retrieve it, with this information we can find any Gen-3 Synth that has been rescued and freed by the railroad and bring them back for interrogation and experimentation,” he explained to Danse.

“Understood sir, I shall brief Riley on our mission, Ad Victorium sir,” Danse replied.

“Ad Victorium, soldier,” Maxson said.

As Danse left to brief Riley on the mission, Maxson walked to his office to get a file for a scribe, the kid couldn’t ask Quinlan for files, no Quinlan had to send the shaking scribe to him, and wait five minutes for the kid stutter out the request with a mess of ‘umm’, ‘ah’ and ‘don’t be mad’ mixed into the question. He sighed wondering if it was time to give Quinlan another lecture on file keeping. His office was for him, not a back-up storage area for Quinlan’s hoarding. He opened the door and saw MacCready lying over his desk again waiting for him.

“What…why…why are you on my desk um…,” Maxson froze, Danse had introduced the guy to him and he’d already forgotten his name.

“MacCready, you’re from the wasteland aren’t you?” MacCready said.

“I’m from the Capital, yes,” Maxson replied calmly.

“Did you ever travel to Little Lamplight, I used to live there,” MacCready asked him, casually tilting his hat back.

“You’re from Lamplight, MacCready wait…Mayor MacCready?” Maxson asked in surprise. Maxson couldn’t believe that he was the same MacCready from Lamplight, he’d changed a lot in ten years.

“The very same,” MacCready replied sitting up.

“I haven’t seen you in ten years, you look so different, you got taller,” Maxson commented. MacCready laughed, ten years and all Maxson could say was he got taller.

“Nothing else to note?” he asked curiously. Maxson eyed MacCready up and down, he’d gotten taller, but he was different, confident? No he was always a smart mouth, something had changed but he couldn’t place it.

“Not that I can see, how do you know that Riley friend of yours?” Maxson asked him as he went find the file in one of the cabinets.

“I was a hired mercenary, Riley actually helped get me out of a jam with the Gunners, they insist that you can never leave, well I proved them wrong, I’m, guessing you stayed with the Brotherhood seeing as you’re an Elder now, I remember when you walked into Lamplight, a scrawny ten year old demanding to trade with us,” MacCready replied. Maxson searched for the file, he could send MacCready out, or ask him to get off the desk, but he didn’t, he kept searching, avoiding his gaze, something about MacCready remembering him set something off in his mind and he wanted to avoid it.

“And yet you accepted, ten years is a long time you know, we were just kids, hard to believe it wasn’t that long ago…well I should go,” Maxson said grabbing the file and heading for the door.

“Leaving so soon, but we were just catching up,” MacCready said. Maxson forced himself to look at MacCready, who was sitting on the desk watching him.

“I have to deliver this file to Proctor Quinlan, you should find your friend…or something, bye,” Maxson said and left the office quickly. What on earth had come over him? He wasn’t one to lose words or get flustered or avoid looking at people, he sighed and went to find Quinlan to give him the file and lecture him on the importance of file keeping.


	5. Blush Response

MacCready returned to Danse and Riley beaming, Riley could only assume that he did something inappropriate. But MacCready refused to say anything about the encounter with Maxson, he just smiled and said it was ‘interesting’. Ingram returned to Danse with news on the prototype.

“So it’s a strange kind of Stealth Boy, but there’s a synth component inside it, which makes me wonder if it’s some kind of device that could help Synths avoid detection when taking SAFE tests, however this is theoretical because we don’t have a Synth to test it on, we did have one but a Super Mutant killed him,” she explained.

“We could bring Nick to the Prydwen, I mean he’s an older model whose personality is practically on par with a regular TV detective, but I bet it would work on him,” MacCready said.

“I don’t think Nick would be willing to help, if anything Maxson would try and scrap him for parts, the minute he boarded,” Riley replied.

“Or we could bring the prototype to Diamond City to his agency, well you two can go I think I’ll stay here,” MacCready suggested. Riley laughed and shook his head at MacCready’s suggestion.

“No you’re coming with us, I don’t trust you alone with Maxson,” he told MacCready. He sighed and leaned on the table, trust Riley to ruin his fun. Suddenly the thumping sound of military boots could be heard as Maxson followed an annoyed Quinlan into the food area.

“And another thing Proctor, I know you take your research seriously but for the love of the Atom I-,” Maxson stopped talking seeing MacCready sitting at the table. “Just keep your files out of my office, dismissed,” he finished and left the area immediately. Riley looked at MacCready who shrugged, he’d done something.

“What did you do?” he asked suspiciously.

“Honestly, I didn’t do anything, we talked about Little Lamplight and then he left in a hurry,” MacCready replied. Even for Danse that was strange, and he didn’t know what Little Lamplight was. Ingram passed the prototype to Danse.

“Test it out on any conscious Synth and bring Quinlan the results, if it can override SAFE tests, then we’ll have to invent an entirely new system for detecting Synths,” she said and left them with it. Danse picked up the prototype and examined it, if it looked like a Stealth Boy how exactly would it hide Synth detection?

“We’ll leave in the morning, I’ll show you to your beds,” Danse told them.

The night was fairly quiet except for the low hum of the engines. Riley and MacCready were sleeping in the spare beds with the recruits, Riley had fallen asleep quickly and was already tangled up in his blanket and drooling over his pillow, but MacCready couldn’t sleep, the blanket felt itchy, and the room was too warm. He had dressed down to the white shirt he wore under his clothes and his boxers but he still couldn’t sleep. He sat up, everyone was sleeping and he needed some air before the heat suffocated him. He left the quarters and walked out onto the main deck.

The air was cool on the main deck, but the engines were a lot louder outside, he walked down along the deck, the metal cold against his bare feet, and he breathed in the air, it felt strangely freeing. He then saw someone at the end of the deck, and he walked along to see who it was. As he approached them, he saw it was Elder Maxson, still wearing that thick battle coat.

“You’re up late,” MacCready said to Maxson who turned slightly to see him.

“Duty never sleeps, at least not for me, why are you awake?” Maxson asked leaning on the railing.

“I can’t sleep, I’m down to my last layer and I still can’t sleep, and I don’t really care for how high up we are, I’ve slept better in a wrecked building with dead ferals,” MacCready replied leaning on the railing next to Maxson. They stood side by side admiring the landscape. Maxson wanted to say something to break the silence, but he didn’t know what to say, but he could see MacCready shivering.

“Aren’t you cold?” he asked him.

“A little, but it’s nothing, I’ve braved the cold before,” MacCready replied. Maxson said nothing but moved closer to him. MacCready glanced at Maxson and then back out over the landscape. The last time he was this nervous around a person, he was fourteen and spending time with Lucy. The cold air sent shivers down his spine, he envied Maxson wearing that thick warm coat.

“Are you okay?” Maxson asked him seeing him shiver.

“No, my as- I’m freezing out here, I should probably go back inside but this…was nice,” MacCready replied. He turned to leave but Maxson grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Wait, I uh…,” he let go of MacCready, unable to give him a reason to stay. “Nothing, go and if you still can’t sleep, well you know where to find me,” he said. MacCready smiled at Maxson.

“Yeah, well…goodnight, I guess,” he said and walked away. Maxson sighed and returned to his private quarters. Shrugging off the coat he went and lay down in his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He felt his cock hardening, unsure if it was the cold or MacCready, and let his hand into his trousers to calm it, he sighed deeply, rubbing his growing erection, feeling himself getting harder. Quiet sighs escaped with each breath as he imagined what MacCready tasted like, what it would be like to feel his cock in his mouth, inside him. Would he be submissive, Maxson liked submissive, yes MacCready on his knees, mouth gagged, and hands tied up, begging for him, begging to be fucked.

“Fuck!” Maxson gasped feeling his orgasm run over his hand and his cum leak through his shorts and stain his uniform. He removed his hand, wiping it down on his leg. He sighed, he hoped the night would be a long one.

 

The next morning was grey and raining, Danse and Riley stood waiting for MacCready as the recruits ate their breakfast.

“Did you sleep well?” Danse asked Riley as he fiddled on his Pip Boy.

“Like Hancock on Jet, not sure about MacCready, at one point I woke up and he wasn’t there,” he replied. Riley liked Danse, out of everyone on the Prydwen he was dedicated to the cause but he wasn’t that obsessed with it like the others. He’s got a nice figure, Riley thought to himself as he admired Danse in his battle coat.

“Where is he?” Danse asked looking around. Riley then spotted MacCready walking up to them, he looked tired.

“Wow you look like shit,” Riley commented.

“I couldn’t sleep, being this high up in the air, in a tin can that was trying to kill me with heat wasn’t easy to sleep in, I took a walk on the deck and I ran into Maxson, we had a talk and then I went returned to sleep,” MacCready told him as he ran his hand through his bedraggled hair to neaten it. Riley raised his eyebrows at the mention of Maxson.

“You met Elder Maxson, late at night, on the deck of the Prydwen, I know what that means,” he said grinning and nudging MacCready.

“We just talked Riley, it’s not like it led to anything,” he said, he glanced at Maxson who was staring at him from the end of the corridor and quickly left through a door.

“Well from the way Maxson looked at you and bolted, it clearly led to something for him,” Riley said. Danse, who had been listening to this entire conversation, decided to cut in with information about the mission.

“We’ll head to Diamond City first, ask around about the Railroad and visit this Nick Valentine to test Ingram’s hypothesis, if we can find a lead to this Railroad we could convince them that we’re there to join and help Synths or whatever,” he explained.

“I’ve heard weird things about the Railroad, they’re really paranoid,” MacCready said. He was familiar with the rumours of the Railroad and their cause.

“Well then we convince them by helping them out with something, gain their trust, steal the holotape and be double agents for a while,” Danse replied. Riley nodded at the idea.

“It’s not too bad, I mean I’m already leading the Minutemen and if they hear that the Minutemen General wants to help in the fight against the Institute, they’d have to let us in,” Riley explained as he pulled from his satchel his minuteman general hat and putting it on. He looks good in it, Danse thought as Haylen approached them.

“Vertibird’s all set boys, Ad Victorium,” she said saluting them. Riley saluted back and they left to take the Vertibird to Diamond City.


	6. Us And Them

They touched down outside of Diamond City where Piper was once against locked out and shouting obscenities at the intercom.

“Well fuck you too Danny,” she shouted at the intercom.

“They lock you out again?” Riley asked smugly. This was how he first met her when he went to meet Nick.

“I leave for five minutes to talk to one of the guards and Danny locks it, I swear I’ll kill him next time he does that,” she said. Riley laughed and pressed the button.

“Hey Danny, it’s me Riley, I’m here with MacCready, listen we need to talk to Nick so if you wouldn’t mind letting us in that would be great,” he said into the intercom.

“Sorry Riley, I wish I could but I’m not allowed to open the doors should Piper get in, the Mayor insists that the doors stay closed,” Danny replied. Danse rolled his eyes and moved towards the intercom.

“Listen here Danny, my name is Paladin Danse and I have Brotherhood of Steel business here so either open up or I’ll get…MacCready here to show you what an ass kicking feels like,” he said. It wasn’t a very good threat at all.

“Why am I the one doing the kicking?” MacCready asked.

“Did you say Brotherhood?” Danny asked.

“Yes, I said Brotherhood, now let us and the civilian you locked out in, hardly an emerald city when you lock people out because they vaguely annoy you, stop being such a child and do your damn job,” Danse said. There was silence and then doors to Diamond City began to open.

“Nice work Steel, what brings you to Diamond City?” she asked him curiously.

“We’re here to see Nick Valentine and look for the Railroad,” Danse replied.

“Nick will be in his office, and as for the Railroad, I only have a rumour which is to follow the freedom trail, whatever that means,” Piper said. MacCready sighed and looked up at the sky, the ground felt strange to him after they had left the Prydwen.

“We better make this quick,” he said as they walked in to Diamond City market.

“Why, are you missing Elder Maxson’s sweet ass, now there’s an image,” Riley said taunting his friend, causing MacCready to blush and pull his hat down.

“Shut up Riley,” he said, this took Piper’s attention.

“Wait, the Sniper here has a thing for the leader of the Brotherhood, and here I thought you two were the item,” she said to them.

“You wish Piper, mine and MacCready’s friendship has surpassed the boundary of platonic and moved into a place where people can interpret our relationship as either romantic or just insanely platonic, it’s what makes us a great team I think,” Riley explained to her. She raised her eyebrows and noted the way Danse was looking at Riley as they walked.

“Well you might want to consider other options then,” Piper advised Riley subtly pointing to Danse. Riley gave her a questionable look which she nodded at causing him to glance at the Paladin who was walking on ahead through the market. He watched the way he walked, the way he looked, how his hips swayed, the way the coat enhanced his figure.

“I never thought about it that way, but if he felt the same, I don’t see the harm in a test drive,” Riley said checking Danse out. He was quite an attractive man, similar build to Garrett but a bit taller.

“Exactly, now I’ll see you at the dugout later, I have a bone to pick with Danny,” Piper said walking away from them. MacCready, Danse and Riley arrived at Nick’s office where he was busy reading over a report.

“Afternoon fella’s what can I do for you?” Nick asked them.

“Hey Nick, we found what is supposed to be some kind of prototype that helps Synths avoid detection in the SAFE test, do you think you could try it out for us?” Riley asked as Danse set down the prototype. Nick observed the object, it looked like a Stealth Boy to him.

“Alright, I suppose there’s no harm in that, those SAFE tests are stupid anyway, baseball team, I’d rather shoot my components out of my metal skull than play that stupid sport,” Nick said sarcastically as he picked up the prototype.

“For a Synth, he’s very…human,” Danse commented.

“No he’s just self-aware, I’m guessing a lot of the Gen-3 models don’t believe they’re Synths,” MacCready said.

“If he’s self-aware then the test won’t work,” Danse said as Nick pressed the button. The prototype then made a strange buzzing sound, sparked and then started to smoke. Nick put the prototype down which then decided to make a rather loud popping sound.

“Well whatever it is, it doesn’t work,” Nick said.

“Well this was a giant waste of time,” Riley said annoyed.

“So we can return to the Prydwen?” MacCready asked excitedly.

“Hell no, we’re still looking for the Railroad, Piper’s waiting for us in the Dugout Inn, you in Danse?” Riley replied.

“Well seeing as I nearly got killed by Synths for this piece of crap, I don’t see the harm in having a really strong drink,” Danse agreed. Ingram was going to have his head for this failure. He picked up the now broken prototype and shoved it back into his satchel. 

They arrived at the Dugout where Piper was outside smoking a cigarette. She waved them over as it began to rain. Inside the Dugout it was warm, dry and smelled of alcohol and old menthol cigarettes, or maybe that was just Piper. MacCready and Riley bounced on ahead to talk to Vadim and Yefim and order their moonshine whilst Piper and Danse lagged behind watching them.

“So what do you think of Riley then?” Piper asked curiously. Danse shrugged at the question, he didn’t know Riley that much, although the inappropriate stories he told always gave insight.

“He’s nice, very inappropriate when it comes to storytelling, but he’s nice,” Danse replied. Piper raised her right eyebrow at him, she was going to get the truth out of him.

“Really, you think he’s nice, you don’t think there’s a little more to him, maybe a little something special, I know he’s considered it,” she said. Danse observed Riley who was enthusiastically waving his arms around telling a story to Vadim. He then turned to Piper and eyed her suspiciously.

“What’s your angle?” he asked her. Piper sighed and exhaled heavily and tried to tug him down to her height.

“I’m saying to give him a shot, I’ve known Riley for a few months now and he said he wouldn’t mind going for a test run,” Piper told him.

“A test run?” Danse asked. No one he knew ever described hooking up as going for a test run, maybe it was commonwealth thing.

“Yes, a test run, look you guys will be spending time together doing whatever it is that you need to do for the Brotherhood, just give it a try,” she encouraged him. Danse wondered about it, Riley was certainly good looking he had to admit that.

“I guess, maybe after we find the Railroad I’ll see if we can do something,” he replied.

“That’s the spirit Danse, Danse revolution, now let’s see about a drink, have you ever tried the moonshine here,” Piper said. They approached the bar just as Riley finished his story.

“And then the prototype blew up and here we are, oh Vadim this is Danse,” Riley said as Danse arrived. Vadim looked at Danse and his smile vanished, a sense of shock came over him.

“Oh my God, it’s you, you’re back,” he said in surprise.

“Do I know you?” Danse asked confused by Vadim’s reaction, he never met this man before, at least he thought he didn’t.

“No, no of course not, you just look like someone I used to know, I’m going to go check back stock quickly, Yefim look after the bar,” Vadim replied and left the bar as fast as he could. Even Piper had never seen Vadim get so jumpy around a person, and why he say ‘you’re back’ did he know Danse somehow?

“What just happened?” Riley asked, unsure of what just transpired.

“I don’t know, I’ve never met Vadim before in my life,” Danse told them.

“Are you sure you didn’t visit the Dugout the last time we were here?” MacCready asked him.

“No, I’m certain of it, I remember every face I meet I have an eidetic…idiotic…photogenic…I can remember faces and I cannot recall ever meeting Vadim before now,” Danse explained. Well now this was strange.

“Ignore my brother he’s just jumping at shadows, you do look familiar though, were you with the Railroad at one point, I see those tourists in here all the time asking for bloody Geiger counters, we don’t sell Geiger counters,” Yefim said to them.

“How do you know about the Railroad?” Piper asked him.

“I used to know one of them, Tom I think his name was, he would come repair things and that was before he went crazy,” Yefim replied wiping down the bar.

“Do you know where they’re located?” Riley asked him.

“Old North Church, I think, that’s what I overheard the last tourist say, they think they’re so smart but I know all their tricks, Tom was also a bit of blabbermouth,” Yefim explained. Danse was confused, the Old North Church was a dead end.

“But we’ve been there, it was infested with ferals,” he said.

“Yeah the ferals like to migrate there, but there is a set of steps leading down to a basement and a puzzle, the password is railroad by the way, you’re welcome,” Yefim said and went to serving a customer. So the Church had a meaning, which meant his dreams weren’t a coincidence.


	7. Memories Of Green

They decided to go to the Old North Church in the morning and stay in Diamond City for the time being, Yefim gave them room two to stay in with Piper going back to the newspaper. MacCready was curled up in the chair in the corner under his coat, whilst Riley had the bed and Danse had his bedroll. He fell asleep in a matter of minutes still confused over Vadim’s reaction.

_“We have to get him out of here agent, if the Institute find him he’ll be reprogrammed.”_

_“Des, it’s too risky.”_

_“I don’t care, just get him to safety, and erase his identity, give him a new face, a new name I don’t care, just get him as far away from the Commonwealth as possible.”_

_“Alright M7-97…time to give you a new life.”_

Danse awoke suddenly, a new name had said in the dream but there voice from the last dream was there, the one who told him to run. Who were they, and why did M7-97 keep turning up. He ran his hand through his hair and lay back, there was no way he could sleep now.

“Are you okay?” Danse turned to see Riley sitting up in bed.

“I’m fine, I just…do you ever have a dream that you just can’t explain?” he asked him.

“No, the only dreams I have are the flashbacks of watching Nora die, they’re not pleasant why what do you dream of?” Riley asked getting off the bed and sitting beside Danse.

“It’s hard to explain…the first time I had the dream was on the Prydwen after a mission and it was bright and I think I was in a hospital, and then I found myself running and then…the Old North Church appeared, it was in my dream and someone was telling me to run, it seemed like a voice I’d heard before, I don’t know if it’s a dream or not, and maybe the Railroad can give me some answers,” Danse explained sitting up and crossing his legs on the bedroll.

“So it’s not just the holotape you need then, you need answers,” Riley said.

“It’s not just that, for as long as I can remember my life has been divided into two things, the child selling junk in the Wasteland and the Brotherhood. With the way Vadim looked at me, these dreams and the church, it feels like there’s a blank space in my mind, and I can’t figure out what used to be there, I’ve never felt this unsure of myself before,” Danse said looking at his hands. Riley took his hand and rubbed his thumb gently over Danse’s hand.

“I felt the same way when I came out of the Vault, I’d lost my son, my wife, all that was left of my old life was Codsworth and then I met Doofus over there,” Riley said pointing to MacCready who was still in the chair curled up. “If it hadn’t been for MacCready helping me go through a Synth infested fort to kill the man who stole my son, I would probably be dead and I still don’t have all the answers I’m looking for, I reached a dead end,” he said.

“What happened?” Danse asked.

“I can’t get through the Glowing Sea to find this scientist who used to work for the Institute and even if I could, it’s a two week trek, I gave up because I realised that my efforts were fruitless, maybe Shaun is better off without me, I was never ready to be a dad,” Riley told him.

“You seem like you’re a good dad to me, you’re incredibly inappropriate sometimes, but I’m sure you were a good dad for the time you had Shaun,” Danse told him. Riley smiled and rested his head on Danse’s shoulder.

“Thanks,” he said. They sat there in silence for a moment enjoying each other’s company before a crash outside the door startled them.

“Man the door Joseph!” MacCready cried waking up. Riley got up and opened the door to see two Gen-1 Synths holding guns up to Vadim.

“Where is M7-97?” the first Synth asked. Riley grabbed his pistol and sneaked out the door, Danse and MacCready following.

“I would rather die than tell you Synth scum,” Vadim said spitting in its face.

“Tell us or we shall have to terminate you,” the Synth said.

“He is not here, M7-97 left with the Railroad two years ago, and if even if I knew where he was I would never tell you, take this,” Vadim cried. He pulled from his coat a shotgun and shot the synth twice in the face. As he reloaded the other Synth began to come at him with its baton but Riley shot it down and crushed its head with his boot. Vadim saw Danse standing in the doorway a little shocked and walked over to him.

“You have to go now, find the Railroad, they’ll protect you from the Institute, more will be coming,” Vadim warned him.

“I don’t understand, how do you know me?” Danse asked him. Vadim sighed and took from his pocket a photograph. In the photo was Danse and Vadim standing behind the bar.

“We took you in two years ago, you wouldn’t remember, they wiped your memory after you left. The Railroad placed you in my protection in case the Institute found you and then they almost did, we had to get you out of the Commonwealth, we took you to the Wasteland and got in touch with Elder Lyons who took you in and gave you a new identity, I thought he would have been good on his word,” Vadim explained.

“Elder Lyons died earlier this year, they placed me under the authority of Maxson shortly after,” Danse replied.

“He died, that explains why you’re back, but listen Danse, you need to leave, you being back has placed you back in the danger I wanted to get you away from when I took you in, go to the Old North Church, now, go!” Vadim said.

They wasted no time in leaving Diamond City and grabbing Piper along the way. When they explained to her that Gen-1 Synths came into the Dugout threatening Vadim and him telling Danse to escape, she needed more to go on.

“Hold on a minute, why would Synths be after you, what did you work for the Institute or something?” she asked Danse.

“I don’t know,” Danse replied.

“Are you a Gen-3 Synth then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then what Danse, why is the Institute after you?”

“I don’t know Piper, I don’t know what I’ve done, all I know is the Railroad might know something and while they figure out who the hell I am, I can get that holotape for Maxson, two bird, one stone,” Danse shouted at her. Everything seemed confusing, yesterday he was just Paladin Danse, sent to kill Synths and recover important technology. The best Blade Runner Maxson had hired, and now he didn’t know who he was or what those dreams were.

They travelled through the wreckage of Boston back to the North Church, Super Mutants chased them and ferals screeched at them as they tumbled over their own legs. Outside the North Church stood two synths and a man wearing sunglasses.

“M7-97 is not here, you tin cans need to let it go,” the man said before shooting one of the Synths. The other Synth began to fire its gun as the man dodged the lasers and took his knife to stab it in its metal chest. The gun stopped firing and the Synth started to spark, the eyes dimmed and it hit the ground. He looked up to see Danse and smiled.

“Well I’ll be, the last time I saw you, you waved goodbye as a Vertibird took you away,” he said.

“And you are?” Riley asked as the four of them approached the stranger.

“Oh where are my manners, the name is Deacon, I’m a Railroad agent and I think Desdemona would very happy to see you again,” Deacon said to them.

“Deacon what am I, Vadim told me to come, I’ve had dreams about this church and…am I a Synth?” Danse asked afraid of what the answer would be.

“I think it’s best Desdemona explain, she was the one who rescued you after all,” Deacon replied. Desdemona must have been the Des mentioned in his dream and this Deacon was the voice he kept hearing. They entered the church, curious to see what answers the Railroad would have.


	8. Digital World

Deacon led the four of them down into the Railroad headquarters. It was nothing like Riley or MacCready expected, for one thing there were coffins propped up in the corners and the large stone graves were now tables and places to store things.

“Des, I have someone you’ll want to meet,” Deacon called. Desdemona walked to the door of the headquarters and her eyes widened at the presence of Danse.

“Oh my, you’re back,” she cried and ran to hug him. Danse froze, this was very weird for him. He wasn’t used to hugs from strange people he never met. “You’re back, I thought after we sent you away…it doesn’t matter,” Desdemona whispered on the brink of tears.

“I am really confused,” Piper told Riley.

“You and me both, I thought the Railroad and the Brotherhood hated each other,” Riley replied.

“I expect you and your friends will wants answers, and you’ll want your memories back,” Desdemona said showing them into the main room.

“Keep an eye out for the holotape,” Danse whispered to Riley.

“You don’t mind if I take a look around do you?” Riley asked Desdemona.

“Don’t break anything,” was all she said. Riley casually broke off from them to take a look for the holotape as Desdemona brought Danse to Tinker Tom.

“Okay sit down and we’ll be able to start the memory recovery,” she said gesturing him to a chair. Danse sat down as Tinker Tom approached him with electrodes. “It began about three years ago when about forty Gen-3 Synths decided to escape the Institute, we’d always been helping them integrate into society with new names and identities but then rumours started coming out of the Institute, rumours of them trying to create a Synth and implanting them with memories from real people,” she explained.

“Nick Valentine’s a Synth with someone’s memories, he was a discarded prototype though, he’s aware he’s a Synth who’s holding the memories of the real Nick Valentine,” Piper told her.

“Synthetic creation has been going on for over a hundred years, Nick must have been an early model they got wrong, that’s where you come in Danse,” Desdemona continued.

“Me?” Danse asked.

“According to documents smuggled out of the Institute, M7-97 was the perfect Synth, SPECIAL tests all came up a perfect ten, this Synth was the model to refer to when creating Gen-3 Synths, but there was one flaw in the plan. They had used the memories and brain matter of a young man who had been killed in the Commonwealth by one of their own Coursers. His memories, personality and overall consciousness overtook and deleted the Synth conscious, he saw himself as a prisoner of the Institute and escaped,” Desdemona continued.

“What was the name of the man’s conscious they used?” Danse asked.

“Danse McFly was his name, eighteen years old when the Courser killed him in the year 2284,” she said.

“So he’s a Synth, he doesn’t look or act like one,” MacCready said leaning towards Danse to observe him “I guess the only way you could really tell is if you look at the eyes.”

“Stop looking into my eyes, it’s weird,” Danse told him in a flat tone.

“Of course he doesn’t act like a Synth, the synthetic conscious was deleted when Danse’s original conscious took over, and as for physically, he’s practically organic expect for the component in his brain, it should contain the memories that were wiped,” Desdemona said.

“So what does me being a Synth and getting my memory wiped have to do with you guys?” Danse asked.

“We got information from a Synth who went back in undercover that you were developing the original conscious, so we had to get you out. The Synth agent told you to run, no one knows how you actually got out of the Institute, and normally when a Synth escapes there’s a relay which automatically resets and wipes their memories but you still remembered everything, except how you got out. I found you wandering through Cambridge, lost and confused and then you collapsed so we brought you back to our hideout at the time, you said that the Institute was holding you prisoner and was conducting experiments on you,” Desdemona told him.

“See that’s where you lose me, the last memory I can remember before joining the Brotherhood was getting attacked by ghouls,” Danse told her.

“The courser thought you was one of them,” Desdemona answered.

“So where does Vadim come into all this, I lived in Diamond City my whole life and I never remember seeing Danse working behind the bar at the Dugout,” Piper said. She had never even met Danse until yesterday.

“Not long after we found you, I told Deacon to take you to Diamond City and place you under the protection of Vadim and Yefim, for about four months you were Vadim’s estranged son Aleck returned from the Capital Wasteland, that’s when the courser came,” Desdemona explained.

“Coursers in Diamond City, that must have sent everyone into a panic,” MacCready guessed.

“It did, there was a brief riot at one point, I had no idea it was you that caused it,” Piper said.

“Well when the courser came looking, Vadim contacted us and brought you here to hide while Deacon waited for High Rise to take you to the leaving caravan…but the courser found you and you had to run, we lost two agents that day, before you left with the caravan I ordered Deacon to perform a quick memory wipe so you would wake in the Wasteland forgetting everything that happened with the Institute and the last thing you would remember would be getting shot by the courser who killed the real Danse,” Desdemona told Danse. He exhaled, everything had flipped upside down for him, a Synth then what was the real Danse like. Tinker Tom then smacked the computer Danse was hooked up to.

“We’re getting nowhere, you’ll need the memory den to unlock those memories, the memory bank is locked tight,” he told them.

“Then Goodneighbour it is, come on let’s go, Riley we’re moving onto Goodneighbour,” MacCready shouted to Riley across the room.

“Sure thing,” Riley shouted back. Tom unhook the electrodes from Danse and he stood up.

“Well thank you for…well giving me the answer I was looking for, that I’m a Synth…oh my God Elder Maxson is going to kill me when he finds out,” Danse said realising that he was now considered a threat to the Brotherhood.

“Oh yes, Deacon said the Brotherhood took you in didn’t they, better keep this to yourself then,” Desdemona advised him. Riley walked over and gave Danse a concerned look.

“You okay Danse?” he asked. Suddenly Danse pulled him into a hug, Riley felt Danse’s chest smack him hard, what was he made of rock?

“Did you find it?” Danse whispered in his ear.

“I did,” Riley whispered before squeezing him a bit tighter. “I’m here for you Danse,” he said a little louder to convinced Desdemona of the hug.

“Thank you…Riley,” Danse replied letting him go. MacCready and Piper stared at them with confusion and Riley pointed to the door.

“MacCready, get your ass out the door before I kick it out,” he said ushering them along.

They left the Railroad and walked to Goodneighbour. The hug from Danse lingered in Riley’s mind, sure it was used to see if Riley had gotten the holotape but he wondered if it was something. Was it a brief need for comfort?

“Hey Danse can we talk for a moment?” he asked Danse. Danse nodded and they walked on ahead of Piper and MacCready towards Goodneighbour. “That hug…was it just so you could know if I got the holotape?” Riley asked. Danse looked at Riley and bit his lip, what could he say to that, he could be honest but would Riley believe him?

“Well while you were looking for the holotape, Desdemona told me everything, I was human at one point, this body is synthetic but my conscious, personality, my memories of selling junk in the Wasteland…all real and it’s strange, I can’t understand it fully, but when I saw you walk back after looking for the tape…I’m not sure, part of it was to know if you got the tape but I think the other part of it was fuelled by the need to convince myself that I’m human, that I’m not…Synthetic,” Danse explained. This confused Riley, Danse looked real enough to him.

“You look human enough to me, and I like that about you, you’re honest,” Riley replied.

“Do you think…we could discuss this more alone, without Piper and your ‘not boyfriend’ two feet behind us?” Danse asked using air quotes to describe MacCready.

“Call for a Vertibird, let’s ditch them on the Prydwen,” Riley suggested. Danse liked the idea and turned on his radio to call for Haylen. “Hey Pipes, Cread, we’re sending you to the Prydwen, Piper can interview some of the Brotherhood crew and learn what it’s like living in a floating tin can and you Cread can go back to hitting on Elder Maxson,” he told them.

“Thank you!” MacCready cried, he’d been itching to get back to the Prydwen and talk with Maxson.

“Sure I’ll go to the Prydwen,” Piper agreed reluctantly. The Vertibird didn’t take long to arrive, Haylen was driving and picked up MacCready and Piper who told them to be careful.


	9. One Night In Rexford

When Danse and Riley reached Goodneighbour, they headed to the Hotel Rexford first to get some sleep before going to the memory den. They rented the only room left which just had a double bed in it. Riley took out the holotape and put it in his Pip-Boy to find the information on Danse.

“I’m going to delete any information I find on you or rather M7-97, I don’t want Elder Maxson to kill the both of us if this information got to him,” he said scouring through the files.

“If Maxson found out that I’m a Synth he will most likely go on a rampage, the Gen-3 Synth we had got killed by a Super Mutant, and when Maxson found out he pushed one of the Knights off the Prydwen,” Danse told him.

“The Knight lived right?” Riley asked slightly scared.

“Oh yeah, he had his power armour on, he survived the fall, but there is a very large dent in the ground now, it wasn’t his fault the Synth needed for the test was ripped in half by the Super Mutant,” Dane said.

“You couldn’t find another one?” Riley asked isolating the M7-97 files.

“No this particular Synth came willingly, said he resented the Institute for making him what he is and if he had to exist, he would rather do good and stop the Institute, Maxson almost considered letting him join,” Danse explained.

“An open Synth in the Brotherhood, that would have changed everything,” Riley said reading through the files. He then found something interesting on the file. “Check this out, according to the record, Danse McFly was born October fifth 2266, yesterday was October fifth, you just turned twenty-one,” he told Danse.

“I thought I was twenty-seven,” Danse said confused, the records on his Brotherhood file said March twelfth 2260.

“If it makes you feel better I’m technically two-hundred and thirty five,” Riley replied.

“To be fair, you do look good for your age,” Danse said to him. Riley laughed and sat down beside Danse on the bed.

“Thanks, but look at this file, this has all the information on the original Danse. Eighteen years old, born in the Wasteland, lived in Little Lamplight for a year, you sure you don’t know MacCready,” Riley said.

“What year did I live there?” Danse asked.

“It said 2280, MacCready wouldn’t have left for another year,” Riley replied.

“I’ll ask the Memory Den to look into that, what else is there?” he said.

“Let’s see, came to the Commonwealth in 2283 and lived at Bunker Hill for a while, and died in a Courser attack at Greentech Genetics in 2284, your life summed up in a file,” Riley said. They examined the other files on M7-97, SPECIAL reports were all tens, biomedical exams all came up positive and everything was there including Danse’s DNA profile.

“Delete everything, as far as Maxson is concerned, there never was an M7-97,” Danse said. Riley selected Delete and the file disappeared from the holotape.

“M7-97 is gone, but we still need to unlock those memories, if we had them, we could figure out where the Institute is,” Riley said. Riley took off the Pip-Boy and placed it on the desk. “By the way, if we can’t find Maxson when we get back, assume that he eloped with MacCready,” he advised Danse. Danse laughed at that, it seemed likely given how much he knew the mercenary, which was very little. He looked at Riley, he didn’t know much about him either.

“Well now that you know my entire life story, why don’t you tell me yours?” Danse asked lying down on the bed. Riley nodded eagerly and sat up against the headboard next to Danse and crossed his legs.

“You want the long version or the short version, long version has a lot of detail,” Riley warned him.

“Long version,” Danse said.

“Okay so it all begins in New York City in 2052, I was born in a fancy hospital in Manhattan, and my parents named me Riley Theodore Scott. I grew up in Manhattan and got kicked out of school at sixteen because despite the fact that I was a very smart kid, I really didn’t like the stifling environment of the public education system. So I joined the army and got sent to Boston, I preferred it there, I could follow orders with ease and no one told me I would die in a ditch addicted to Jet because I refused to take a standardised test. That’s when I met Garrett,” Riley said.

“The one you were in the closet with,” Danse pointed out.

“Yes that one, we were in the same division, we got along well, and then one night under the light of a full moon when we were off duty and sitting on top of the PR building drinking beer, we kissed,” Riley continued.

“Romantic,” Danse commented.

“Very much, for two years we were inseparable until…” Riley trailed off, he wasn’t sure if he could tell this particular part of the story.

“Until what?” Danse asked sitting up now.

“Garrett died in action, we’d been deployed and normally we had each other’s back but we got separated in the action and then I saw the soldier run up to Garrett and…” Riley stopped, he couldn’t finish, all he could picture was watching that Russian kill him. “Garrett was the first person I said I love you to, I loved him so much and to see him die like that…do you know what it like to watch the person someone that close to you die?” he asked Danse. Danse nodded.

“Cutler, my memory is fuzzy but I remember knowing him as a child and then again in the Brotherhood, he was kidnapped by Super Mutants on an assignment, turned into one of them, I had to kill him to end his pain, it’s led to an intense hatred of Super Mutants, after what they did I…I get it, I really do,” Danse replied.

“That must have sucked, after Garrett’s death my life went in a downward spiral, I got addicted to chems, nearly got kicked out the army, I got sent back to Boston to get clean and ‘get the fuck over it’ as my commanding officer put it, I punched him in the face for that. I was nineteen and I was distraught over Garrett’s death. Two years later I was finally clean but I wasn’t fit to return to overseas work so I stayed in Boston doing covert stuff, and paperwork, and then I met Nora,” Riley said.

“How did you meet Nora?” Danse asked.

“I went to a bar with my best friend Barney, and she was there with her friends, we had drinks and we started dating after that, we got married when she found out she was pregnant, we’d been together for three years at the time it just seemed right, the war ended shortly after Shaun was born and then Nuclear Fallout, waking up two centuries later, running into MacCready in the Third Rail, killing Kellogg and here we are,” Riley said.

“Wow, you’ve had quite the life so far,” Danse said.

“I like to think my life really began when I was released from cryo, something about the world now, I don’t know, I fit into it a lot better than I did before,” Riley told him.

“What part of the world now makes you think that?” Danse asked him curiously.

“I’m not sure…the sense of nostalgia maybe, the world was destroyed and forever locked in a time period I used to know very well,” Riley replied.

“That makes sense,” Danse said. They sat there in silence hearing the sound of the radio in the room next door, a lot had been said and it was still a few hours until dawn. Riley then laid down on the bed.

“We should get some sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow and I’ll go over the holotape again to check for any more information,” he said. Danse moved to get off the bed but Riley grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“To sleep on the floor,” Danse said.

“The bed is big enough for the two of us, you don’t want to sleep on the floor here, really bad for the spine,” Riley told him. He couldn’t argue with that logic and lay down beside him.

“It is nice sleeping on a mattress, the floor at the Dugout was gritty and uncomfortable,” he said.

“Yeah,” Riley agreed, he turned on his side to look at Danse, he noted the time on the Pip-Boy reading three-twelve in the morning and saw Danse glance at him. “You know you’re taking this whole Synth thing really well, when Barney found out that he was adopted he flipped and hid in the dorm for a week,” Riley said.

“Really?” Danse asked him turning towards him.

“Yeah, it’s kind of admirable, your life has changed but you still seem really grounded,” Riley said.

“Maybe it’s because there’s something keeping me on the ground,” Danse said. The moment had changed for him, he felt this urge to kiss Riley, just to see what it was like. “If this feels too forward, I apologise,” he said before leaning to kiss Riley. He didn’t expect that, he sank into the kiss and moved closer to Danse. Danse wrapped his arms around him, pulling him on top of him. Riley stopped to look down at Danse.

“Not forward at all,” he said and kissed him again.


	10. The Memory Den

A mist had rolled through Boston, and Goodneighbour was now wrapped in a smokey white atmosphere. In their room in Hotel Rexford Riley was tangled up between Danse and the blanket. He opened his eyes remembering what had happened. He had kissed Danse, but that’s as far as they got, they just kissed until Riley nuzzled his face in Danse’s neck and ended up falling asleep. He remembered that they still had to go to the memory den, but he was just too comfortable to move. He felt Danse move underneath him and wake up.

“Morning, you ready for the memory den?” he asked. Riley sighed and kissed him softly.

“I’m way too comfortable to move, I just want to lie here with you,” he replied. Danse wanted to insist they get moving but Riley had started nibbling his neck again.

“I suppose ten more minutes can’t hurt,” Danse said giving into the sensation of Riley nipping at him. 

“Good, because I could use ten minutes,” Riley said kissing Danse again and tugging at his shirt. Danse ran a hand through Riley’s hair and then moved so Riley was underneath him, seemed better this way. He nibbled on Riley’s bottom lip and slowly began to pull the shirt off him. Being that Riley was a soldier before he was frozen it made sense from him to be physically built well, he ran his hand over Riley’s six pack, making him groan slightly.

“Oh God,” he breathed. Danse moved from kissing Riley’s neck down to his chest and then the muscles on his stomach, letting his tongue reach the tough black denim of his jeans, dare he find out if he tasted as good as he looked. He grabbed the thick fabric with his teeth when a loud beeping sound startled him, ripping the button off by mistake. Riley sat up suddenly to see the Pip Boy beeping furiously, not something it usually did. He grabbed the Pip Boy to see it was the battery dying.

“Of course the Pip Boy is battery powered,” Riley muttered to himself turning it off. He looked back at Danse who spat out the button into his palm. “How did you manage to rip off the button?” he asked Danse.

“I thought it would be sexy to undo it with my teeth but the beeping caught me off guard,” he said embarrassed. Riley laughed and examined his now ruined jeans.

“This was my only pair,” he said. He stood up to put his shirt back on and get dressed. “We should head to the memory den, Dr. Amari is good at unlocking memories, but I think because you’re Institute property you’ll need me hooked up to help take down any walls,” Riley explained.

“How do you know that?” Danse asked putting his coat on.

“Oh when we killed Kellogg, we took his component, attached it to Nick and we both synced up to get into the memory bank, it was weird, like being in the Matrix,” Riley explained.

“Matrix?” Danse asked.

“Pre-War sci-fi movie, really good, extremely complicated,” Riley said.

They left the hotel and went next door to the memory den where Irma greeted him with a friendly smile.

“Riley, you’re back and who is your friend here?” she said eyeing up Danse.

“Hi Irma, is Dr. Amari around, we need to use her hacking skills to unlock some memories,” Riley told her.

“Down the stairs honey,” Irma replied casually with a wave of her hand. Riley and Danse headed into the basement where Amari was working on a computer.

“Dr. Amari, I’m here on another memory unlocking mission,” Riley said. Dr. Amari turned and was surprised to see Danse standing behind him.

“Danse, you’re back,” she said surprised.

“How does everyone know you?” Riley cried in frustration, first Vadim, then Desdemona, now Dr. Amari.

“I was in Goodneighbour two weeks ago looking for a Synth,” Danse told him. “I dropped by the den to ask Dr. Amari if she’d seen them.”

“What can I do for you today?” Amari asked them.

“So apparently Danse is a Synth, and he’s got a locked memory bank that not even Tinker Tom can unlock, think we could do what we did with Kellogg and unlock with synced up minds?” Riley asked. Amari nodded calmly.

“Sure, Riley you sit in the memory pod and Danse you sit here, shouldn’t be hard to get to your memory bank without opening your head up,” Amari told him. Riley settled into the pod, and Danse sat in the chair beside it, Amari picked up the electrodes and attached them to Danse’s head. She went to the computer and began to input the information.

“Alright we’re all set,” she told them.

“Hey Doctor, could you look for a memory involving Little Lamplight in 2280?” Danse asked her.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find when we get the bank open, okay,” Amari replied. Riley stared at the screen and was sent into Danse’s memories.

“Okay we’re in the bank, it appears all your memories have been stored in here, let’s start at the beginning and work our way up, that way we’ll know where to pinpoint your memories of the Institute,” Amari’s voice echoed.

_The first memory was a little blonde haired boy standing at a table in Rivet City surrounded with tin cans, broken bottles, scrap and other kind of various junk. Was it the real Danse, he must have been about seven years old._

“Not the right one, ah here’s another.”

_The next memory was about four years later in 2277 and Danse was now talking to a tall teenage girl with red hair._

_“Do you know the way to Rivet City, I’m looking for my father,” the girl said to him._

_“Sure, just keep going south alongside the river, it’s a large boat, shouldn’t be hard to miss,” Danse told her._

_“Thanks kid,” the girl replied and continued walking._

“That’s the lone wanderer, she’s the most well-known Vault Dweller outside of the Commonwealth she escaped Vault 101 to look for her father who was working with the Brotherhood of Steel, let’s find the next memory.”

_Three years later and Riley saw Danse in a cave talking to a tall and very skinny looking lad with a patchy looking five o’clock shadow._

_“The name is MacCready, if you need anything you come to me or my girl Lucy, what’s your name kid?” That was MacCready, Riley should have guessed._

_“It’s Danse McFly.”_

_“You don’t mind if I call you Blondie do you,”_

_“Not at all, outside in the Wasteland, they call me the Junk Town Brat,”_

“You knew MacCready then, interesting, ah here’s another memory.”

_The next memory was four years later, eighteen year old Danse was sneaking through Greentech Genetics, he found a dead gunner and looted the body for some scrap, bullets and the scarf. He tied the scarf around his neck and continued upwards through the building. There was a growling sound and he saw a large swarm of ghouls crawling over a body that was fighting its way through the horde. Danse took out his pistol and crept over to the group. A ghoul saw him and screeched causing the other ghouls to forget the other person and advance towards him. Danse began to fire rapidly and then suddenly as he kick another ghoul out of the way, the other person fired a shot from a laser rifle and it hit Danse in the chest. Danse then fell to the ground dead and the ghouls went back to attacking the other person._

“That’s the courser who killed you, this should be the way to finding the Institute memories.”

_The next memory was in a large white operating room. Lying on the table was the real Danse, wearing nothing but white boxer shorts._

_“Did the brain respond positively?”_

_“Yes, this Danse McFly was lucky it was one of ours who found him.”_

_“What of the memories and conscious, is there a possibility of it contaminating the conscious we built for M7-97?”_

“So they disposed of the real Danse’s body but kept the brain to use in your Synth body, let’s see what else there is.”

_“Seal the exits, M7-97 is loose in the lab, don’t let him get away!” a man shouted. Danse was running down a hallway towards a door with an EXIT sign above it. He was wearing white scrubs and two coursers were chasing him._

_“Stop him!” one of the coursers shouted. Danse then pushed the door open and the Courser chip in his hand activated and he disappeared in a flash of blue electricity._

“You got out with a courser chip, just like in Kellogg’s memory, we’re coming up on another memory.”

_Danse found himself lying on the ground outside of the CIT ruins, he slowly stood up but felt extremely weak. He looked at his side where a railway spike was stuck into his side. He took a step forward and cried out in pain, staggering forward he could see someone in front of him._

_“Are you alright?” the person asked. Danse opened his mouth to answer and then fell to the floor unconscious._

“The memory wasn’t as long as we expected, ah here’s another that could help.”

_Inside the Dugout, Danse was wiping down the bar as Travis stammered through his story._

_“I…I don’t know if I could ask her out,” he said._

_“Why not, she’s cute,” Danse said. Vadim then walked in behind the bar and slapped Danse on the back._

_“Are you giving Travis more lady advice Aleck, you must have been such a catch in the Capital, doesn’t he look like a catch Travis,” Vadim said._

_“I…I guess,” Travis stammered._

“Ah this must have been part of the identity Desdemona created for you, ah we’re coming up on the final memory.”

_Deacon and Danse were running through Boston, Danse then tripped and hit the wet ground. Deacon stopped and helped him up._

_“Come on Danse, we have to get out of here, where the hell is High Rise, he was supposed to be here,” Deacon said. They continued running until they reached the caravan on the edge of the city._

_“Is this the guy?” one of them asked._

_“Yeah, let’s get going, just one more thing,” Deacon said before injecting a needle into Danse’s neck._

“Wait a minute there’s another memory.”

_The Capital Wasteland, and Danse and Deacon stood by a Vertibird, a Brotherhood Knight waiting for them. At least it looked like Deacon, the guy had incredibly bright red hair._

_“Good luck in the Brotherhood bro, you always said you wanted to join,” Deacon said_

_“Thanks Charlie, and good luck on the trip to Vegas,” Danse said._

_“It’ll be a long walk but it’s going to be worth it, maybe I’ll see you in a couple years when you’re an Elder with your own blimp,” Deacon said. Danse got into the Vertibird and it took off. Danse waved down to Deacon who was waving back at him._

“Okay that’s the last memory, I’ll just pull you out quickly, hold on.”

Riley opened his eyes and found himself back in the memory den. He climbed out of the memory pod and saw Danse rubbing his eyes. Amari was back at her computer.

“We found a lot from this memory bank, you escaped the Institute with a courser chip that was ready for a relay, and that last memory must have been after Deacon performed your memory wipe, he disguised himself so you could safely leave the Commonwealth with him,” Amari explained.

“What surprises me is not only did you know MacCready from seven years ago, but the real Danse was blonde,” Riley said.

“That’s what you took from all this?” Danse asked him.

“Well your memory bank is now unlocked so more memories might start returning, what do you plan to do with this information?” Amari asked.

“Well leaving out the fact that you’re a Synth with the brain of a dead man, I say we tell Maxson that not only did we steal the holotape from the Railroad but also that the Institute uses teleportation, I mean I knew that from Kellogg but you just confirmed it,” Riley explained.

“I like that the sound of that, I’ll call in Haylen to pick us up,” Danse agreed. He had experienced the memories alongside Riley, none of it was artificial everything was real. But even if Danse was real, he was still Synthetic, not the real Danse who was killed by the courser.


	11. Recon Plan

Danse and Riley returned to the Prydwen with the holotape and the information about how coursers travel in and out of the Institute. Danse went to go over the information with Quinlan, Maxson, and Ingram, leaving Riley to catch up with Piper and MacCready. They were hanging out by the bar when they saw Riley adding new batteries to his Pip-Boy as he walked.

“Hey how’d it go at the memory den?” Piper asked him.

“Danse and I kissed last night…and again this morning,” Riley answered. MacCready’s mouth dropped and jumped off his stool, he grabbed Riley’s arm and dragged him to the bar.

“Oh my God, you have to tell me everything, what was it like, was he rough or was it firm and soft, did it go further than kissing, give me details,” MacCready said in an excited tone that even Piper found weird.

“Oh my God MacCready, you’re acting like a teenage girl who found out her best friend made out with the school quarterback,” she said. Riley laughed at her description.

“Hey a Pre-war reference,” he noted.

“Boston library has a shit ton of books called Young Adult, most seem to feature girls kissing quarterbacks, never girls kissing girls,” she replied.

“If you want girl on girl, I’m sure University Points porn safe is still in good condition,” Riley told her.

“What’s that?” Piper asked him.

“Back in the day when I was on leave from the army, I was down at University Point near Quincey with my friend Barney, we’d heard about a bookstore that had a ‘Porn Safe’, which was a back room filled so many pornographic magazines and videos, they had to remove the black light because people would do things in that room,” Riley explained.

“That’s disgusting but go on,” Piper replied.

“Well, we went down there and that was when I found ‘Stag’,” Riley said.

“Stag, was that a magazine or a movie?” Haylen asked from behind the counter. Riley wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there but he noticed some of the Brotherhood were interested in his story.

“Stag was sexiest porno movie I’d ever seen, I swear the main guy who gets to have all the sex looked exactly like Danse,” Riley told them.

“Recon mission!” someone shouted.

“As fun as finding the legendary pot of porn at the end of the rainbow would be, I want to hear about your kiss with Danse,” MacCready said.

“Wait you kissed Danse?” Haylen asked shocked. Some of the brotherhood began to mutter amongst themselves regarding this information.

“He kissed Danse!”

“Danse, kissing the Vault Dweller?”

“Danse is gay?”

“No I thought he was bisexual.”

“Guys please!” Riley said the room of curious brotherhood members. “I don’t think Danse would appreciate me telling you all this…but it was good.”

“Oh man, you are so lucky,” Haylen said. “I mean I’m not into Danse like that but hey we all think he’s the beefcake of the Prydwen.”

“Glad you all think that, makes this feel less awkward,” Riley commented. The guy who had shouted ‘recon mission’ had moved his way through the group to take a seat next to Riley.

“Well that’s great but seriously, a Recon Mission to University Point to get that porn collection would be fun,” he said.

“You’ll need a Field Scribe,” Haylen said.

“And your two best friends,” Piper added nudging MacCready.

“Hey I’m a pre-war researcher,” said the guy suggesting the mission.

“What’s your name?” Riley asked.

“Scribe Gomez,” the guy replied.

“Okay so me, Haylen, Gomez, MacCready and Piper…that sounds enough for a mission…if Maxson will approve it,” Riley said.

“Oh he’ll approve it, I’ll make sure of it,” MacCready said suggestively.

“You are not sleeping with Maxson,” Riley ordered to his best friend.

“If we got Danse on board, he could be our team leader, what do you say?” Haylen suggested, ignoring the weird order about Maxson.

“I say get back to work!” Maxson shouted from the doorway. How long had he been standing there, Riley thought, Danse was standing behind him, meaning he must have heard the idea too. Everyone scattered leaving Haylen, Riley, MacCready and Piper by the counter to deal with Maxson. He walked over to Riley who had a look of slight terror on his face.

“Tell me more about this ‘recon mission’,” he said calmly.

“Uh…it involves a bunch of us going to University Point to recover some pre-war media, we might get to kill Synths along the way,” Riley replied. Maxson glared at him, for a man who was slightly shorter than him he always managed to make himself look bigger. Maxson then drew back and turned away.

“Gather a team, Paladin Danse here will lead it and be sure to bring back…everything you find, you set out tomorrow, dismissed for the evening,” he said and walked away. Riley’s mouth dropped at the words. Did Maxson even know that the only reason for the recon was to find dirty magazines and movies?

Piper then went off with Haylen to discuss more about life as a Scribe in the Brotherhood leaving MacCready and Riley, as Danse had gone back to his quarters.

“So how did the kiss happen?” MacCready asked him.

“It just did, we were talking and then we kissed, what about you, what happened with you and Maxson, nail him on his desk?” Riley replied. MacCready laughed sarcastically.

“Funny, no I didn’t get to talk to him, he was too busy yelling at some poor bas- idiot about the importance of keeping his quarters clean, he’s kind of a neat freak,” he said.

“Never would have guessed,” Riley said surprised. They chatted for the rest of the evening with some other brotherhood members casually joining the conversation. When night hit and all the members went back their quarters for the night, Piper, MacCready and Riley were left in the food area. They were sat on the floor eating Sugar Bombs and Potato Chips.

“Wow, Danse was a blonde, that is something to imagine, but did you really delete the files?” Piper asked.

“We had no choice, Maxson would kill him, and then he’d kill me…and probably kill you two as well,” he replied.

“I guess so, but this raises so many questions about the Institute, like why would you use the brain of a dead guy in a Synth?” Piper asked.

“I don’t know, but the memories showed him escaping through teleportation, he’d gotten a courser chip and left on a relay, our next move then would be…to go to the Glowing Sea and find Virgil,” Riley said.

“But you said to forget the Glowing Sea, after reading through Kellogg’s memories and learning about the sea you said it wouldn’t be worth going,” MacCready said to him.

“I know, but I guess Mama Murphy was right, my destiny is in the Glowing Sea and I can’t run away from that,” Riley said. The Sea would probably kill him before he got to Virgil. “I think I’ll take a walk,” he said getting up and leaving them.

Riley walked up to the Prydwen deck and looked out of the large glass windows. It was a long way down the ground. In the distance to the south west he could see the light of the Glowing Sea against the night. Its ugly glow beckoned him, he knew the answers lay in the radioactive waste, it would be dangerous, Deathclaws and Radscorpions everywhere. He would die before he got to Virgil. And tomorrow he was heading to University Point. The distraction there would be enough to give him some confidence to figure out how to tell Maxson about the plan to go to the Sea. He tuned the Pip Boy to Diamond City Radio, Travis’s confidence had skyrocketed after the bar fight and rescuing Vadim from Butch.

Music started playing as Riley leaned against the glass, footsteps on the metal caught his attention but he didn’t turn.

“RJ said you would be here,” he heard Danse say.

“RJ, didn’t think he’d let you call him that,” Riley said still looking out at the Commonwealth.

“Well I mentioned the Lamplight memory and he started going into a big thing about how he should have known it was me when Desdemona said my name was Danse McFly, and then when I asked where you were, he said you’d gone to take a walk,” Danse replied walking over to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing it’s just…remember when I said that my efforts to find Shaun were fruitless because it’s impossible to get through the Glowing Sea,” Riley said.

“Yeah,” Danse replied.

“I lied, truth is, I didn’t want to find Virgil, I just gave up, after Kellogg’s memories showed him with Shaun, stealing him, killing Nora, looking after Shaun I just…it made me realise that I was never fit to be father, I’m a twenty-five year old former drug addict, why didn’t that Russian kill me instead of Garrett,” Riley said. Danse wrapped his arms around Riley’s waist and pulled him close.

“Listen to me, you’re a good person, you’re a good father because how many parents would risk their lives for their child,” Danse told him.

“MacCready would, he came here to get a cure for his son, we got it and now Duncan’s recovering, but he’s not fit to come to the Commonwealth yet,” Riley pointed out. He nuzzled his face in Riley’s neck planting a kiss there.

“If you want, I’ll come with you to the Sea, help you find this Virgil guy,” Danse offered. Riley turned to face Danse and smiled.

“Thanks, what would I do without you?” Riley said kissing Danse.

“Unspeakable things, probably with RJ, he’s changed since Lamplight,” Danse replied seriously. Riley laughed and kissed Danse again.

“You’re probably right, anyway I should get to my bed, we’re going on a recon mission to find porn tomorrow,” he told Danse.

“Oh yes, RJ mentioned that too, but I have private quarters, so you can bunk with me,” Danse replied. This pleased Riley, private quarters, perhaps they could do more than kiss this time around.


	12. It’s Not My Office

Whilst Riley and Danse sneaked off to Danse’s private quarters to sleep. MacCready woke up again from the heat and itchy blankets, he left the recruit’s quarters to cool off when Maxson appeared from behind a door and grabbed him shoving him into a nearby room.

“What the-,” MacCready began before Maxson clamped his hand over the mercenary’s mouth to silence him. This is the part where I die isn’t it, MacCready thought as Maxson held him against the wall.

“Alright MacCready listen up, I need you do something for me, just this once and we never speak of it again,” Maxson whispered against his ear. MacCready was very confused, and slightly aroused by the situation. He’d been wanting to speak with Maxson and make more suggestive comments, but Maxson yelling at everyone took priority.

“I’m not sure what is going on here,” MacCready said his voice muffled by Maxson’s rather large hand. Maxson then turned MacCready and slammed him against the wall again.

“What is going on, is you and I are going to chat,” he told MacCready. MacCready wanted to believe it, if Maxson wasn’t pressing his whole body up against him.

“Really, chat, you want to chat with me, whilst I’m trapped between you and the wall,” MacCready said. Maxson glared at him, this mercenary had been on his mind since they chatted that night on the Prydwen, and dammit, he was going to get his.

“Oh we might even chat on my desk if that’s what you want, the fact is...you’ve been a bit of a nuisance and you need to be dealt with,” Maxson told him. He wondered, what MacCready should do for him. The tightening in his trousers suggested one thing he could make the mercenary do. No, that would be too easy, he could tease MacCready, get him hot and bothered and leave him on the edge.

“You’re really bad at this you know that,” MacCready told him. Maxson looked at him confused, did he know what was going on? “I mean, it’s one thing to get off on the idea of restraining me, but to try and pull it off…you’ve been thinking about this since I got back haven’t you,” MacCready could see right through Maxson’s plan.

“How did…I…I yelled at some poor bastard just to get an idea of how to do this,” he said the plan shattering.

“Obviously you didn’t yell loud enough,” MacCready said with a smirk. Maxson pinned one of MacCready’s arms above his head.

“You fucking...” Maxson stopped and instead kissed MacCready instead. Why was he doing this, and why did it feel good? This Wasteland Bullet Busker had distracted him enough. He gripped MacCready’s waist, his nails digging in through the fabric of his shirt. God he could just tear it off and fuck him, but he can’t, he shouldn’t. He let go of MacCready and stepped back, it was wrong. MacCready relaxed, slightly breathless and thanking the Gods he was wearing his jeans to hide his cramped erection.

“So…I think I’ll leave,” he said going for the door handle. Maxson grabbed his arm gripping it tight.

“You’ll do no such thing, I’ve only just started,” he told him. “And…there’s a desk right there,” he suggested gesturing to the desk, it wasn’t Maxson’s desk but it would suffice, no matter who’s it belonged to. Maxson walked over and picked up the computer and placed it on the floor and swept everything else off. The only thing that confused MacCready was that Maxson placed the computer higher than everything else on the table.

“Whose office is this?” he asked Maxson.

“Looks like its Quinlan’s and he’s not on the Prydwen currently, it’ll do,” Maxson replied as he grabbed MacCready to pull him back into a kiss. He kisses good, a little rough but still, MacCready thought as Maxson guided him over to the desk. He grabbed the table for support as Maxson moved to kissing his neck, his beard itched against MacCready’s skin it was kind of wiry and sharp felt like tiny needles prodding him. Maxson’s hands slowly moved down MacCready’s body, stopping at his hips.

“I want you to do something for me,” Maxson whispered.

“Oh I’ll do anything you say,” MacCready said shuddering at how sexy Maxson sounded. He smirked, this would make things easier.

“Good because you’re going to lie on the desk for me and then I’m going to suck you off so good that I’ll need to gag you to stop from waking up the crew,” Maxson said biting MacCready’s it. His reply was just a moan that sounded like ‘yes sir’ to him. MacCready complied and lay down on the desk as Maxson had commanded, he had complained to Riley about moaners being the worst to have sex, but his secret shame was that he was one too. He turned his attention back to Maxson who climbed onto the desk and sat on his waist trapping him. He pulled MacCready’s shirt off and got a good look at him.

“Outstanding,” he said before running his hands down to MacCready’s jeans, he moved a little down the desk and undid the rough denim. MacCready breathed as he felt Maxson’s gently grace him, all he could think about was keeping quiet, which failed as soon as he felt Maxson’s mouth close around his erection.

“Fuck!” MacCready said. Screw the no cursing rule, this called for cursing. Maxson clamped his hand down on MacCready’s mouth to keep him quiet as he worked his tongue over him. Maxson could hear his muffled groans as he worked, he knew MacCready wouldn’t be far off from his orgasm, he slowly bobbed his head which prompted a furious buck from MacCready’s hips.

“Oh God!” MacCready mumbled behind Maxson’s hand, how he wanted to shout, but he couldn’t. He was so close all Maxson would have to do was the slightest movement. Maxson then dragged his tongue up MacCready’s length and he moaned loudly as he came into Maxson’s mouth. Maxson took every bit of him in and when his mouth was full, he carefully removed MacCready’s cock from his mouth and swallowed him down. He tasted good. Maxson kissed MacCready hard letting him know how much he enjoyed it.

“Not bad for a Bullet Busker, we’ll have to try something else next time,” he told MacCready who was in a bit of daze.

“Next time?” he asked.

“You thought this was a one-off, no when I want something I don’t throw it away after one use,” Maxson replied getting off the desk.

“So what am I, your toy to play with when you’re bored?” he asked Maxson putting his shirt back on. Maxson laughed rubbing his hand up MacCready’s thighs.

“If you were a toy, I would have broken you already, no you’re more of…a stress reliever, and I’ve needed one for a while,” he said. MacCready was good at knowing when a person was lying and Maxson was definitely lying. He kissed Maxson wrapping his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.

“I’m not a stress reliever, if I was, you would have me suck your dick,” he said. MacCready had got him there, the stress relief was such a flimsy lie. Instead he just let MacCready cling onto him.

“You’re sleeping with me tonight, my room’s cooler,” he told MacCready.

“Are we not going to clean this up?” MacCready asked looking at the mess of pencils, files and newspapers.

“It’s not my office,” Maxson replied dragging him out of the office.


	13. A Demon, A Devil, A Doll

Inside Danse’s room he was lying with Riley, they were both stripped down to their underwear under the blanket, which clearly wasn’t made from the same material that the recruits had, these weren’t even itchy. While Riley was looking forward to University Point his mind was stuck on the Glowing Sea. He didn’t want to go, it was a scary place, and the last Knight who went there never came back. Danse could sense something was wrong.

“What is it?” he asked Riley stroking his hair.

“It’s the Glowing Sea, according to Mama Murphy it’s a really scary place,” he told Danse.

“Everything is scary in a world where Deathclaws and Radscorpions exist,” Danse pointed out.

“Well I haven’t lived in this time long enough to get used to it, I mean before I was frozen I was contemplating getting my old job back at the record store which got obliterated,” Riley replied. He looked at Danse, “I guess things could be worse, I could have gotten evaporated before I entered the vault,” he said.

“Good point, if you were dead, who would have saved me from those synths in Lexington?” Danse said. Riley kissed him, it was just like when he first kissed Garrett on the PR building, it had been a long time since he’d felt like this. He’d lost Garrett and Nora, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing Danse as well, in their short time, he realised how similar it was like when he met Garrett. Riley settled down and closed his eyes with Danse still holding onto him.

 

When morning arrived, it was raining, Riley and Danse headed to get breakfast where Piper was already eating breakfast, she noticed their face and knew something was up.

“You two look happy,” she commented as she ate another spoonful of Sugar Bombs.

“You’d be happy too, if you had a good night sleep,” Riley replied with a glance at Danse, he blushed at his comment and sat down.

“Oh yeah, well let me tell you Riley Scott, I have a girlfriend, a very pretty girlfriend, and I know that exact look, it’s the look she had after we spent the night together for the first time,” Piper told them.

“I’ve never had a girlfriend, then again, I don’t really like girls that much, they’re pretty but…no I don’t like them as much as you two,” Danse told them.

“So you have a preference then, oh sure you’d probably date a girl, but you wouldn’t actively pursue a relationship with them, now see me, one-hundred percent straight up girls,” Piper replied. Riley laughed as she made a gesture with her fingers.

“And you have me, Riley Scott the biggest bisexual in the Commonwealth,” Riley declared.

“Yeah, the biggest bisexual who denies sleeping with his best friend,” Piper commented.

“How many times will I have to tell you that we’re just close friends, I’d spoon you if you had nightmares, in fact I’ll spoon you right now, get over here,” Riley challenged her. Danse then remembered a new memory surface in the back of his mind.

“I was close with MacCready…I left Lamplight with him, we travelled together and we were close friends. We met up with Lucy and travelled with her for a year, she stayed in Rivet City for a few months to look after Duncan whilst MacCready and I did jobs around the Wasteland…oh God have I slept with MacCready?” Danse asked them. Piper choked back laughter at the confused look on his face.

“Danse if you and I had slept together I would have remembered waking up next to the blonde version of you,” MacCready said as he sat down at the table. Everyone stared at him in shock, on his neck was a large and very noticeable purple bruise. Piper broke into a grin and started laughing.

“You have a hickey,” she said finding it too funny to focus on her food. Maxson then entered the food area to make an announcement.

“Alright, today I want efficiency and I want a new Gen-3 Synth to conduct tests on by the evening, and Paladin Danse, gather your team you roll out in an hour,” he said to the room. Riley then saw on Maxson’s neck a purple bruise that not even his coat could hide. He then looked at MacCready with a stern look.

“You didn’t,” he said with a low tone.

“You actually, did it?” Piper asked.

“You slept with my boss?” Danse asked.

“Shut up, no, and no, Maxson and I did not sleep together…he just…gave me a blowjob on Quinlan’s desk and then I stayed with Maxson in his room,” MacCready said. Their mouths all dropped.

“Wait a minute, so not only did he blow you on Quinlan’s desk, but he also let you sleep in his bed with him?” Riley asked not believing it.

“Yeah it was…oddly comforting, his dick poking me in the back all night wasn’t,” MacCready told them.

“So you and Elder Maxson, honestly I never thought you would have gone for him, he’s so…serious,” Piper said, she’d seen her fair share of crack pairings and even remembered hearing about a Raider who declared his love to a Deathclaw right before it ate him.

“He called me a Bullet Busker, whatever that means,” MacCready told them.

“Buskers would play music for money, or in your case, you kill people for caps or possibly bullets same principle,” Riley told him. “But I should be mad at you for this, I kept forbidding it and you went and did it anyway.”

“Maxson initiated it, he was saying about how I was a distraction and it was so obvious what he was trying to do that he just gave up and gave in,” MacCready replied. That didn’t sit well with Riley. Danse stood up, uncomfortable with them talking about his boss in such an inappropriate manor.

“I’m going to find the rest of our team, meet us by the Vertibird,” he said walking away. With him gone, MacCready turned the subject to Riley.

“So what about you then Riley?” he asked. Riley shook his head and stood up.

“I don’t want to talk about it, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wait by the Vertibird,” he replied and left them. Piper and MacCready exchanged confused glances, what changed so quickly?

As Riley climbed down the ladder to the Prydwen deck, he saw Maxson staring out the glass windows and none else around, he felt in the pit of his stomach, a tight knot of anger. Sure he would joke with MacCready about him and Maxson, but they were still best friends and he had a duty to protect him. He walked over to Maxson and pushed him against the glasses, pinning him back with his arm against Maxson’s throat.

“Hurt him and I will end you,” he threatened Maxson.

“What are you talking about?” Maxson struggled to ask as Riley’s arm pressed hard on his throat.

“MacCready, he is my best friend and I will do whatever it takes to protect him, so I will say it again, if you hurt him, I will kill you,” he said in a low gritted voice. Maxson started laughing and pushed Riley back hard, causing him to fall to the floor.

“You care, I’ll give you that, but you have no clue what you’re talking about,” Maxson told Riley as they glared at each other.

“I‘ve met men like you, your lust for authority makes you bush the boundaries and when it gets too much for the other person, you lash out and say it’s their fault,” Riley said. Maxson laughed as Riley stood up.

“You are still so naïve to this world Riley, and blind too if you think I am like those men you speak of, I suggest you watch yourself if you want him to stay your best friend,” Maxson said.

“Just give me your word that you won’t hurt him,” Riley said reaching for Kellogg’s pistol that was hidden under his jacket.

“I give you my word, is that enough for you?” Maxson asked. Riley glared at the Elder and nodded slowly.

“For now,” he said and walked away. As he made his way outside onto the main deck, he couldn’t help but feel there was something sinister to Maxson, something that made his skin crawl.


	14. Vibetech

Everyone was gathered by the Vertibird, as Danse made sure everyone was there. Riley checked the map on the pip boy and highlighted University Point. He looked up to see Maxson whispering something to MacCready. Maxson then looked directly at him with a look that Riley read as some kind of threat to him. Even when he first met Maxson in the office, he didn’t like him. The refusal to shake his hand, that really intense glare, Maxson gave off bad vibes to him. They boarded the Vertibird and Haylen began to fly them towards University Point.

University Point was a ruin, now that the Synths had taken over, and no one ventured there. The bookstore was just outside of the wreckage area in the main town. Riley remembered the bookstore being called Empire Books, and the window having a large Silver Shroud window sticker.

“It should be near an old Bucks Coffee place,” Riley informed Gomez who was placed on scout duty.

“Alright, and there’s a Silver Shroud in the window,” Gomez confirmed. Riley nodded, it was never hard to miss because twice he mistook it for a real person. He avoided looking at, or talking to MacCready, focusing on watching the ground below as the bay came into view. He would have to talk to MacCready about this Maxson thing.

The Vertibird touched down outside of University Point and they got out of the Vertibird.

“Will it be fine out here in the open?” Riley asked Haylen as she pocketed the keys for it.

“You ask too many questions you know that,” she replied walking past him and loading her laser rifle. Riley mimicked her tone quietly and made a face behind her back.

“Okay team, we’ll split into three teams of two, Gomez you and I will scout to the East, I’m hearing ferals that way, Haylen, you and Piper go to the west, there’s a lot of water that way so keep an eye for any Mirelurks. And Riley, MacCready, you two find the bookshop and clear it out, is that clear,” Danse ordered.

“Sir, yes sir, I can’t wait to find this dirty material sir,” Gomez shouted.

“Tone it down Gomez, we’re professionals,” Danse replied to him. That shut Gomez up quickly.

They all split up and Riley and MacCready went to find the bookshop. MacCready noticed Riley was acting odd, he was quiet, not cracking jokes or making any of their classic inappropriate banter, heck he hadn’t even brought up the topic of spooning that was classic Riley.

“Are you okay Riley, you have that same look Duncan gets when I tell him he can’t stay up late to play Grognak,” MacCready told him. Riley glanced at his best friend and said nothing, all he could think about was that look on Maxson’s face. Finally he said something.

“Why didn’t you tell him no?” he asked MacCready.

“What?” MacCready was confused at the question.

“Maxson, why didn’t you say no?” Riley asked again. Oh, it was Maxson bothering him.

“Because I didn’t want to say no, you knew I would have done something sooner or later,” MacCready replied. Why was this even a discussion, Riley knew he wasn’t joking about it.

“No I didn’t, I thought it was banter, joking, I didn’t think you were going to actually let Maxson suck you off like a goddamn Popsicle,” he said, his voice rising in agitation.

“Why do you care Riley, so Maxson and I are attracted to each other, what are you harbouring some secret attraction to me that goes beyond the boundaries of our friendship?” MacCready asked. He’d stopped walking and they were standing in the middle of the street.

“Oh where did you get that from?” Riley said.

“The road can be a lonely place until you meet someone to share it with, don’t think I didn’t forget you pulling that line on me not long after Mass Pike,” MacCready told him. Riley rolled his eyes, that was two months ago.

“Okay maybe at first I thought I felt something, but I got over it, I came to value our friendship, the last person I called my best friend was Barney, and never did I want to sleep with him,” Riley told him. A Radroach tried to scuttle past them but Riley shot it with one bullet.

“So what is your problem with Maxson, if ain’t your secret desire to fuck me!” MacCready shouted. Riley hadn’t heard him swear yet, if he ever did he was quick to use another word.

“I know men like Maxson, they’re the kind of guys who will push you until you try to defend yourself and then…and then you’re the one running to me, saying how could he do that to you, but then you’ll run back to him when he comes back with an apology and the vicious circle will continue, until someone rescues you from the abuse which mostly likely will be me if he hasn’t forced you to cut me out of your life,” Riley shouted back. MacCready couldn’t believe the words coming out of Riley’s mouth.

“You really think that of Maxson, of me, you’re supposed to be my best friend Riley,” he said.

“I’m trying to protect you!” Riley shouted as he felt hot tears on his face.

“I don’t need protecting Riley, I can take care of myself, I have been doing that since I was a child,” MacCready shouted.

“I know but I look out for those I care about, the people I love,” Riley told him.

“Well if you cared, you wouldn’t be saying these things,” MacCready shouted.

“I DO CARE GARRETT!” Riley yelled. MacCready stared at Riley, he called him Garrett. He wanted to say something when the sound of laser pistols caught his attention.

“Retrieve M7-97,” they heard a Synth order. When Riley heard the name, he started to run to find Danse. MacCready followed, this fight would have to continue later when the Synths were dead. They turned a corner to see three Coursers all surrounding Danse, two of them tightly gripping his arms and Synths surrounding them.

“Danse!” Riley shouted.

“Let’s go,” one of the Coursers said. Suddenly the Coursers and Synths disappeared in a flash of blue light and Danse was gone. Gomez was lying on the ground injured and Riley stared at the empty space where Danse had stood.

“Danse,” he whispered before screaming to the sky above in anger and dropping to the ground. Haylen and Piper arrived to see them, Riley sobbing loudly as MacCready held onto him for support and Gomez stabbing himself with a Stimpack.

“They took Danse, the bastard Institute kidnapped Danse!” Gomez cried as he felt the pain of his broken rib start healing.

“He’s gone, they’re going to reprogram him,” Riley said fearing the worst. He knew from Nick that Synths who got taken back to the Institute were reprogrammed and had their memories wiped.

“Riley I…” MacCready had nothing to say. He had gone from arguing with Riley to comforting him. Instead he forced Riley to look at him.

“Riley, listen to me, we’ll get him back, trust me,” he said. Riley nodded, his lip trembling.

“I’m sorry Mac, I shouldn’t have said those things and...Please don’t be the next to leave me,” he said before crying into MacCready’s jacket.

“They took Danse…why?” Haylen asked confused.

“They called him…M7-97…that’s a Synth…name, was he a Synth?” Gomez asked standing up. Piper stepped in for this, there was no way Riley could even speak while he was crying.

“This stays between us, this does not leave this group, understand?” Piper asked Haylen and Gomez. They both nodded in agreement.

“Danse is a Synth, the real Danse was killed at eighteen and the Institute took his brain and put it in a Synth body, somehow the real Danse’s conscious and brain took over and deleted the pre-made Synth conscious, Danse escaped and was taken in by the Railroad and saved, the Brotherhood took him in, Danse had no idea until a few days ago, his memories had been locked up,” she told them.

“We made sure that Maxson wouldn’t find out, if he does he’ll kill Danse, or worse us,” Riley said letting go of MacCready. “It’s a shock I know, but you guys know Danse, he’s a good person.”

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Haylen asked as Riley stood up and wiped his eyes.

“Because you people hate anyone who doesn’t look like a human, you hate ghouls, even the ones who don’t try to eat you, you don’t like Super Mutants, you think Synths are worse than the goddamn Atom Bomb, you people are so stuck up, if anyone in the Brotherhood found out about Danse you’d turn your backs faster than a revolving you, you people suck!” Riley shouted at them all. Piper wanted to tell him to calm down, but he had a point and he’d just watched Danse get taken by the Institute, he had every right to be mad. Haylen sighed and grabbed Riley by his collar.

“Look, I care about Danse too, he’s my freaking role model, but I would never turn my back on him, so we’re going to go back to the Prydwen, tell Maxson he got kidnapped and devise a way to get him back, understand!”


	15. Through Glass

Everything was white when Danse awoke. Everything was white, bright, and familiar, he knew this place. The Institute. He sat up, he was still wearing his battle coat, his black brotherhood jumpsuit. He tapped the glass that held him prisoner, and saw the doors open. An older gentleman with greying hair entered the room. Danse recognised him, it was Father.

“Father?” he asked.

“Ah M7-97, or rather Danse, I see they brought you back in one piece, it’s been three years since you escaped, we never thought you’d return,” Father said kindly.

“Your coursers kidnapped me, why…why couldn’t you have let me be?” Danse asked standing up.

“Danse, you are a very special Synth, your conscious and willpower was so strong it took over the pre-made conscious we had designed for you, you were going to be a courser like X6-88, you remember him, don’t you,” Father replied. Oh Danse remembered, X6-88 was the one who helped him escape the Institute, but whether it was out of defiance or bad luck he couldn’t remember.

“I do…Father, please don’t reprogram me, or wipe my memories, please, I’ve learned so much, I don’t want to forget, it’ll kill me to forget Riley,” Danse said to Father. Father turned to him with intrigue.

“Who is this Riley?” he asked.

“He’s…he saved my life, I’ve grown to care for him,” Danse replied lowering his head as if ashamed. Father walked to the glass.

“You are a remarkable unit, I couldn’t erase your mind, your willpower would probably undo all our work like it did before, you were the first Synth that we created that held a healthy functioning organic brain, sure the pre-made conscious was wiped but it would have happened anyway, you are mankind’s first successful attempt at life after death,” Father told him.

“Life after death?”

“The real Danse was dead but your mind was able to be saved, so we transferred the brain to M7-97, attached the component and you awoke three days later, a completely new person, but then as your brain regained power, so did the conscious start to return, when you escaped I realised what we did was not create the perfect Synth, but brought back a dead man,” Father replied.

“I just want to go back home,” Danse said.

“But this is your home Danse, the Institute was always your home,” Father told him. Danse sat on the floor, not looking at Father, all he could think about was Riley and what he must be feeling.

“Home is with the Brotherhood, with Riley,” he muttered. Father shook his head and turned away from Danse.

“Your home is here Danse, you’d do well to remember that, I will be back later, perhaps when you’ve rested a bit, you can meet the rest of the faculty and begin your training,” Father said as he walked away from Danse. Danse couldn’t remember the last time he felt this alone, it was probably back when he was blond Danse, the Junk Town Wastelander, he thought back to the Lone Wanderer when he first met her and how nice she was to him when he gave her directions to Rivet City, the way she ruffled his hair and called him ‘a good kid’. He sighed and laid down on the cold floor.

“Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?” he murmured to himself before feeling the tears welling up in his eyes.

 

Up on the Prydwen, Haylen and Gomez were recounting the incident outside University Point with Danse and the Synths to Maxson. Riley was leaning against the windows staring down at the ground in silence, he wanted to scream, to throw things, to yell, but he didn’t want to draw attention. Maxson eyed Riley’s silent demeanour and ordered Haylen and Gomez to leave, so that he could chat with MacCready, Piper, and Riley.

“Alright you three let’s talk,” Maxson ordered to them, Riley refused to look at Maxson. “Why is it that my best soldier was taken with very little resistance from any of you?” he asked them.

“Well this wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t fucking my best friend,” Riley said aggressively. Maxson laughed at Riley’s answer.

“You think this is my fault, you think my relationship with the bullet busker here is the cause for my best Paladin’s capture by my enemies,” he replied waiting for the rebuttal from Riley.

“Oh shut up you pathetic child!” Riley said to Maxson in an aggressive tone. “I’ve met commanding officers who had more balls than you, when our soldiers went missing we didn’t place blame at each other’s feet, we stormed the enemy and got our men and women back, and I am not losing Danse the way I lost Garrett, have you ever watched someone you loved get slaughtered in front of you, because I have TWICE! I watched Garrett get killed by enemy soldiers and I watched Kellogg shoot my wife in cold blood and steal my child, and I’ll be damned if the Institute take Danse and do whatever it is Piper believes they do when the kidnap people,” he shouted before storming out of the room. MacCready wanted to run after him, but Piper stopped him.

“I’ll go,” she said before running after Riley. She raced after Riley and followed him to the edge of the Prydwen where he stood on the edge looking down at the ground below.

“Riley what are you doing, get back from there,” she cried seeing him.

“Why does this fucking world hate me Piper, why does it try to take everything I love away, first it took Garrett, then it took Nora, and then Shaun, and now…now it’s taken Danse from me and if my bad luck kept running it would take you and MacCready with it, I can’t keep losing everything I love,” he said, the tears from his eyes being blown away with the wind.

“Riley, I’ve lost people too, my dad was kidnapped by the Institute and replaced, my mother was so distraught at what happened that she couldn’t take it and overdosed on chems, and I work so damn hard to make sure my little sister doesn’t get taken away from me too,” Piper said as she pulled Riley back from the edge. He collapsed into her arms, a broken mess as they sat there on the floor of the Prydwen deck.

“I can’t keep going on like this,” he said sobbing into her coat. Piper then forced him to look at her.

“Look at me Riley, look at me, you can keep going, remember what you said to me when we first met, you said no matter how much you want to give up, don’t lose hope, you told me those very words,” she told him. Piper was right, Riley remembered the interview, he felt the world collapsing around him, but he couldn’t give up, not now.

“You’re right Piper,” he muttered before sobbing into her coat again.

 

Inside Maxson’s office MacCready could see from the window Piper and Riley on the deck hugging each other, he felt bad, like Danse getting kidnapped was his fault, why did he have to have that stupid fight with Riley?

“I really hate myself right now,” he muttered as Maxson poured himself a whiskey.

“He has every right to be angry, but if he was under my command when he said that to me, I would have punished him severely, he now knows the threat we face from the Institute,” Maxson said to MacCready as he stood beside him.

“He already knew they were a threat when they took his son, now it’s personal because they took Danse and I have a feeling that he would destroy them if it meant getting him back,” MacCready told him.

“I know, I would do the same thing, and I know that Riley would kill me if I let anything happen to you,” Maxson said.

“He’d do more than kill you believe me, you’ve no idea what that guy has been through what with being frozen in a vault and waking to this…junk town,” MacCready replied. Maxson had to agree with him, he had no idea and Riley had no idea what he had been through out in the Capital Wasteland.


End file.
